Posts tagged ‘bird photography’
WHOOPERS
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Aransas NWR / Goose Island, Texas ~ 12/2019
Multiple days at a rebuilding, a still recovering Goose Island SP.
The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey still evident.
Lamar Peninsula felt scrubbed, severely pruned and brightly repainted.
Nice.
Three days on the water with Jeff Parker of Explore In Focus, captained by Kevin Sims and Lori McCullough Sims of Aransas Bay Birding Charters.
All quality people offering personable and knowledgeable professional photography and guide services.
Not to be missed if you are a wildlife photographer.
The alternate lifeblood of the area, barge traffic in the Army Corps barge channel; alternate and contrasting with local fishing guides and purveyors of whooping crane access, made itself known the first day.
A sunken paired gravel barge mid-channel with another string of gravel and sand barges run aground on top of the first. A second sinking gravel barge pushed ashore mid-channel to avoid it’s complete sinking, had the Coast Guard’s, Army Corp’s and private contractor’s noisy attention and focus as they scrambled to offload and re-float commercial barges.
This, as barge traffic backed up outside of the barge channel into a connecting bay.
The birds, Whoopers and most all else, retreated well into the center of the marshes as far from mankind and his commerce as possible.
My meager combination of 400 mm telephoto and 1.4 TC would not dent that distance.
By the third day the barge back up had moved on and Coast Guard’s, Army Corp’s and private contractor’s efforts had yielded some positive results.
The Whooping Cranes returned, visually accessible.
Back ashore, a privately held Lamar Peninsula photography blind yielded huge whooping crane, sand hill crane and whistling duck activity late in the day.
Gallery Link ~ Aransas NWR / Goose Island – 12/2019
Gallery Link ~ Aransas NWR – Winter 2017
Having been away from traveling and travel photography for a good 18 months while we relocated to the New Hampshire seacoast I find myself bumping up against that old learning curve and lots of relearning.
Some things have changed digitally in my time away.
Interesting to be back traveling … 18 months at this age is a long time.
Wings Over Willcox ~ Whitewater Draw
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Arizona Game and Fish
Professional Photography Guide Services Courtesy of the Wings Over Willcox Festival volunteer efforts of George Andrejko and Tom Whetton.
These gentleman were truly professionals in their photographic skills and in their people skills. They knew when to make the instructive and constructive comment that was specific to the setting at hand as well as being appropriate to the group in general. Their presentations and style were different yet complementary, obviously there is a history here of having collaborated with one another.
I would participate on any of their photo tours without hesitation.
Wings Over Willcox is an extremely well organized and well run nature and birding festival in this, its 20th year.
Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area
Tom Whetton has me convinced that all wildlife photographers and/or birders should be buying hunting licenses and duck stamps to support the wildlife areas that they appreciate and frequent. Otherwise we are freeloading on others. Those license fees go directly to Arizona Game and Fish.
Expanded Image Gallery
Cochise County, Arizona has been a way interesting area to spend some time. I would return.
Now on to Bosque del Apache NWR in New Mexico and then the great yet quirky state of Texas.
Rio Grande Valley to the Gulf Coast of Texas
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Been away from the blog world for a while due to the lap top pooping the bed; that and poor connectivity on the road. This post feels more like a generic update, catching up, rather than commentary with a flow.
Falcon State Park Texas sits on the Rio Grande River below Zapata and Laredo and above the McAllen/Edinburg congestion. Water was very low in the reservoir. Below the dam there was more water in the Rio Grande River than we have seen the entire trip.
Nice folks staffing the park. New Park Superintendent, Carlos Rivas gets high marks. Personable, professional and involved; he was willing to extend himself.
Birders or Fishermen: Either one type of fanatic or the other at Falcon SP. We all have our passions.
Met a number of proud Canadians who have taken offense at our politics. They feel slandered over our treatment and portrayal of the Canadian health car system. I take offense and feel slandered by our politics quite often myself.
Did some bird watching / bird photography within the park and at a site outside of the park. Two very different experiences: The nearby Salinenos site was ‘industrial’ birding – the number of birds brought in by the vast amount of feed and feeders was unnatural and overwhelming. The Falcon SP site maintained by a husband and wife park volunteer couple was well done. There seems to be a marked difference between bird photographers and birders. Birders are pleased to see the bird whatever the environment or background while as a photographer one is as interested in the quality of the environment and background as the bird. Looking for natural bird behavior as well. ‘Industrial’ feeding doesn’t make it.
Route 83 south and east out of Falcon became more and more congested with strip development. Needed to drive to Donna, Texas to access Jerry Cook, the Computer Doctor: great service, great prices and he knows what he is doing! I did not realize the age and how out of date my workhorse of a computing machine (an HP) was until I spoke with Jerry. Windows XP will no longer be supported by Microsoft and my machine’s Intel Centrino processor is not hearty enough to run Windows 7 as an operating system. Time to update when we return home. Jerry got me back up and running for a reasonable price in a reasonable amount of time. Thank you Jerry Cook; enjoy your retirement!
Makes me wonder what about the rest of me is out dated and has not kept up?!?
No matter where I have been in Texas or how fast I drive, Texas’ drivers always seem to drive faster and pass me at will.
All the above bird images were captured at the viewing site out back of the Rec Hall at Falcon State Park Texas.
We are now on the Lamar Peninsula just above Fulton/Rockport at Goose Island State Park Texas.
God Bless Public Libraries ~ connectivity life savers!
