Painted Bunting bathing | Tim Timmis Photography

Female Painted Bunting at Laguna Seca Ranch

Made another trip to south Texas last week for some photo blind photography. Had a great time as usual. Thanks again Scott for the invitation and Richard for the six-hour ride down south. Spent Friday morning at Laguna Seca Ranch and Saturday/Sunday at Santa Clara Ranch.

It was a little toasty sitting in the blinds with the temps around 98 deg F in the afternoons but it wasn’t as bad as anticipated. Just felt like another warm summer day in the Houston area. Although, I’m not usually sitting in a box at those temp’s, but it was well worth it.

Larry Ditto was our guide at Laguna Seca . It was great to spend some quality time with Larry again as our paths usually only cross briefly at Galveston’s FeatherFest.

The activity was slow on Friday but there were still lots of birds around. We saw some of the usual suspects, including painted buntings, bobwhite quail, green jays, cardinals, bronzed cowbirds, thrashers, etc.

We only saw one of the brightly colored male buntings for a few seconds but there were several female buntings that came up to the water. It’s always fun to shoot off a burst of photos while they are bathing.

Taken with Canon 1DX with Canon 500mm F4 IS II mounted on tripod with Wimberley II gimbal head

Aperture priority, 1/1250 sec @ F5.0, ISO 3200, spot metering, 500mm

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Aperture priority, 1/640 sec @ F5.0, ISO 3200, evaluative metering, 500mm

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July 4, 2016 | Categories: Birds | Tags: Canon 1DX, Canon 500mm F4 IS II, Female Painting Bunting, Laguna Seca Ranch, Lagune Seca, Painted Bunting, Painted Bunting bathing, Wimberley II | 4 Comments

Painted Bunting – Bath Time

Here are some Painted Bunting photos from my trip to Laguna Seca ranch. This was my first opportunity to see these up close. A member of the Cardinal family, they are tiny little birds but you can’t miss them with those colors. The male is brightly colored and the females are yellow-green in color. They hung out in the foliage and only came out to bathe when we were there.

Taken with Canon 1DX and Canon 500mm F4 IS II mounted on tripod with Wimberley II gimbal head

1/2000 sec @ F9, ISO 3200, evaluative metering, +2/3 exposure compensation