Great Egret mating dance

This Great Egret was striking its best mating dance pose at the High Island rookery.  This shot was taken early in the rookery season in 2009 during one of my scouting missions to see if any birds had shown up yet at the rookery.  Not many birds around except this one doing the dance.  I love how they show their breeding plumage to attract a mate.  It was a foggy morning and the shot came out a little soft with ISO 500 and shutter at 1/125 sec but it gives it good feel.  That’s my story and I’m stickin to it.  I can’t wait until this spring…

Why do Avocets cross the road?  Probably because some idiot is trying to take their picture.  Another trip to Bolivar Flats at low tide found this group of American Avocets in what I’d call a tide pool area near the shore.  I waded out into the water to take some flight shots and then made my approach to them from the water side.  Thought that a covert water landing would be better than to possibly spook them from going back on shore first.  Ended up on my knees trying to carry the camera/ground pod as I got closer to shore and then belly crawled up on the sand bar.  That would have made an interesting photo op in itself.  Got totally wet but it was worth it as they didn’t spook but just walked past me on their way to the water.  It’s the thing that I love about laying down with the ground pod – the birds don’t see you until they get very close.  I liked the golden light and the look of their thin legs all grouped together in this shot.

Taken with Canon 40D and 100-400 lens

F5.6 @ 1/500 sec., ISO 250, spot metering on ground pod

This Reddish Egret was doing his best posing for me at Bolivar Flats.  I really liked the side lighting on this one.  This is one of my favorite Reddish portraits.  Taken while laying down in the sand using my ground pod.

Canon 40D with 100-400 lens on ground pod

F5.6 @ 1/640 sec, ISO 250, spot metering

Northern Harrier

This is a Northern Harrier taken before sunrise at San Bernard NWR.  Took it hand held out the car window while waiting for a flock of geese to blast off.  Used shutter priority at 1/6 sec  to get a blurred shot.  This one turned out looking like a double exposure.  Converted it to B&W in photoshop since there was very little color anyway.

Canon 7D with 100-400 lens

F13 @ 1/6 sec, +1 exp compensation, spot metering, ISO 200

Black Skimmers

Since I’ve been having fun lately with slow shutter speeds, thought that I’d try it out with some Black Skimmers.  Found several hundred of them hanging out at the east end of Galveston Island in the windy, cold weather (relatively speeking).  They were in two different groups and would blast off every 10 minutes or so.  Took this shot panning with the flock at 1/8 sec on shutter priority.

Canon 7D with 100-400 lens out the car window

F16 @ 1/8 sec, +1 exp compensation, ISO 100

Almost didn’t get this photo of the Reddish Egret because I didn’t follow one of my own rules for wildlife photograhy: ” look behind you”.  I had been laying down shooting other birds when a couple of wade fisherman came walking up behind me and scared away all of the birds.  Really ticked me off but I stuck around for a while longer but the birds didn’t come back, or so I though.  Was about to get up when I remembered the look behind you rule and found this Reddish Egret.  He was not in the traditional “have the sun at your back” position to get a good shot.  I tend to ignore tradition and love back lit and silhouette shots so I fired away.  He caught a fish and I was able to get this shot by firing off a burst.

Taken with Canon 40D and 100-400 lens on ground pod

F5.6 @ 1/1000 sec, ISO 160, 400mm, evaluative metering

American Avocets

Here is another one of my favorite shots from Bolivar Flats.  This was taken just after sunrise while wading out into the Gulf.  I had just bought a pair of waders to use in the winter to keep my lower half dry while laying in the wet sand taking bird photos.  I also finally figured out using my infinite wisdom that they also work to actually “wade” out into the water.  So with my new found intelligence, I started to walk off shore before sunrise to get close to the birds flying by.  On this particular morning, the water was very calm and almost like glass, which is rare for the  Gulf.  I was about 100 yds off shore when this group of American Avocets flew very close to me.  Got this full frame shot while hand holding the camera with the ground pod attached.

Taken with Canon 40D and 100-400 lens

F5.6 @ 1/4000 sec, ISO 200, spot metering

Here is a blast off of geese from San Bernard NWR. There were a few thousand of them hanging out in a pond near the road.  Got there about 1/2 hr before sunrise.  They all lifted off at once just after sunrise.  Took this shot out the car window.  Slowed the action down by using shutter priority at 1/6 sec.  Panned with the birds and got lots of blur with some more defined heads of the geese.  The wind was just right and they flew directly in front of me.  Bailed out of the car to get more shots as they flew by.  I love the sight and sound of the blast off.  I’m always tempted to take a video of the blast off with my 7D but don’t want to pass up the still shots.

Welcome to my new blog.  For the first post, I wanted to show some of my favorite photos from 2010.  It was a great year for taking pictures in SE Texas.  I’m looking forward to more fun in 2011.  Click on the photos to see larger images along with a description for each photo.