Birdapalooza II

March has turned out to be a very good month and we still have several days left! Thanks to our quick trip to Vegas, my Average Year status is now at 239 (link here) – that includes two local finds yesterday thanks to standing out in a large tree lined meadow waiting for the distinct peent of horny male American Woodcocks (link here – more sad memories). Call me 12, but I still laugh every single time I say or type out that name hehehe. The other +1 was more of a twist as it “found” me. I was just standing there noting it was getting surprisingly chilly as the sun was preparing for bed, when I noticed a fast moving bird heading across the meadow directly at me. Ever witness people just standing there taking it all in as a car or other potentially dangerous object speeds in their direction? This bird just kept coming, I just kept standing there, bird continues to close the gap, I continue to gawk, bird appears to be on a mission, I continue to ponder the history of flight, bird undeterred, I wonder if Ron is standing next to me (birds hate him), bird proceeds to whiz past my right ear and land on a nearby branch, I nearly crap my pants. What the hell was THAT! I turned to give it a stern talking to when I noticed it was a Fox Sparrow. Took a few snaps to get the +1 for the year and politely informed it a Top Gun flyby wasn’t necessary, a friendly wave would have been sufficient. I don’t speak bird, but I think it called me a ground hugging troglodyte and pointed to its wings – sigh.

That puts me a mere 61 birds away from the 300 goal for the year. Hoping to take a huge chunk out of that next week as we are heading down to Dauphin Island (and along the Panhandle) for some migration action. During that time we’ll be bringing you several posts from Brad including an adventure to a place Intrigued has never been before. Actually, Brad also influenced today’s featured post.

Hit the jump to experience Birdapalooza II

For the most part, my feathered friend posts tend to focus on a series of shots from a single encounter or minimally a specific species. No rule of course, just tends to be the “modus aperandi” as it gives me a chance to deep dive into the bird, give a bit of background on the location and usually some interesting facts to take home from the visit. Sometimes I come up short on images. Maybe there isn’t enough interesting poses, too brief of an encounter, possibly didn’t come out the digital darkroom as well as wanted or…and this happens more than I would like to admit..we are unable to identify it. In the event these situations happen, the shots are put aside and unfortunately forgotten. Brad’s multi-species post was the perfect catalyst for bringing those back out – sit back and enjoy the show as they say.

Our first specimen is the Ringed Kingfisher. Towering over the more common Belted variety, the Ringed has a much smaller footprint in the US. If you are lucky, they can be found in the southern tip of Texas.

The Ringed is a miss for us during our recent January stay in Texas. In the past I have had good luck finding them at Edinburg Scenic Wetlands or Estero Llano Grande State Park (link here). Surprising a Kingfisher that big could successfully elude us.

Next up is a true cold-hearted killer. It just happens to be super cute at the same time – regular ol’ Femme Fatale (apologies if this specimen happens to be a male).

The Loggerhead, like all Shrikes, tend to make Vlad the Impaler look like a Sunday school teacher. As if being captured by this cute cuddly creature isn’t embarrassing enough, their victims soon find themselves with a large thorn, barbed wire or similarly sharp object protruding from their torso — did I mention how cute they are?

It isn’t all for show though. Cornell notes they are one of the few birds to feast on the toxic Monarch Butterfly (link here), Snag one out of the sky, impale it on a thorn and simply wait a few days until the toxin breaks down – genius … did I mention they are cute? (link here). If for some reason you have not seen one of these yet, you are guaranteed to see one at Galveston Island State Park where this happened to be shot.

Next up is not one to look at, but a critical component in the “Circle of Life”.

Their kin, the Turkey Vulture, tend to circle high overhead whenever I go out for a long run. I hope that isn’t foreshadowing. Those redheads pretty much cover all of the states and down into Central/South America. In contrast, The Black variety only range up into the southeastern states. Pretty easy to tell them apart where they overlap. The silver/light coloring on their underwings give them away. Turkeys will have the entire back edge of their wings light where the Blacks have the lighter coloring only on the ends of their wings. Of course, one has a red head and the other a black, but what’s the fun in that ha.

This particular specimen was hanging out inside the San Antonio Zoo when we visited back in January ’22. Maybe doesn’t speak well to the longevity of their animals, although it may just be a 3D chess strategy as it was keeping a keen eye on the large Cat enclosure. Busboy for the top tier predators.

Seems fitting to go with another ummmm, hmmmm, hate to feather shame, so let’s go with simply non attractive species. The Moscovy Duck comes in a variety of colorations – much like the Rock Pigeon (link here). See the Ft Myers post for some of those variations (link here).

This particular specimen is basically the Walmart greeter for the South Padre Island Bird Viewing and Nature Center. Every year we go down there, it is hanging out either in the small pond located in the parking lot or holding the visitor center doors open for guests. Apologies, but I cannot remember the name the workers there have given it – let’s go with Wally for snicks. Rumor has it this is where David Bowie got the idea for the cover of Aladdin Sane.

A number of the remaining species also come from the SPI Birding Center. It is quite possible that there are soooo many birds there I get too excited and do not spend enough time on each specimen to get a full series of shots. Take for example this Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron (double check for the second hyphen, yes it is there). Sum total of shots …..drum roll … ONE. Do like what I got, definitely made the most of it. I find the Yellows are far less active than the Black-Crowns during the day, so getting a shot with their eyes open is always a treat (link here).

I had to go back to 2016 to find the last time I featured a Blue-Winged Teal (link here). It isn’t that I do not like these Ducks as they are quite pretty with their white stripes and leopard print bathing suits. The problem is they are EVERYWHERE. Did a quick validation with Cornell and confirmed from a population perspective they are second only to the Mallard. I cannot remember a body of water that we have visited where this diminutive Duck wasn’t paddling around in it.

These days I’ll take a few shots to validate the day’s count and move on. Every now and then I notice a shot I really like in the bunch, work it up and … well, put in the “get to later” folder. Just so our Drake doesn’t feel bad, we haven’t featured an American Coot since 2014 either (link here).

This next specimen falls in the “too brief of an encounter” grouping. Continuing the SPI Birding Center finds, this Clapper Rail revealed itself for a total of 30 seconds before quickly running off into the reeds never to be seen again. In that amount of time, I managed to get a total of 6 images in the tin. Two would destroy any reputation I had as a photographer if they saw the light of day and there were only two unique poses across the other 4 shots.

Bill slightly up….

…Bill slightly down

The first one happens to be my favorite of my Clapper shots and went to print after a bit more cleanup and a slightly different crop to give it slightly more room in front. If you are willing to give it some time, there is a high probability of seeing a Clapper there. Hang out at the junction before the second right of the boardwalk and watch the reeds for movement. Eventually one will pop out – be ready though, it isn’t going to stand and pose like our next specimen.

Roseate Spoonbills have become Linda’s favorite bird. Pretty sure it is well know by now, but Linda will ONLY take photos of what she labels as pretty birds. Sorry Sparrows, you do not have a chance of ever making it into her tin (or about 95% of the other birds we have access to). Northern Cardinals, Hummers, Green Jays, Vermilion Flycatchers, Northern Pintails, Orioles, Mountain Bluebirds.. you get the picture. While in Texas she was picking these Pinkies out right and left. It was overcast the day we found this specimen (also at SPI Birding Center). Took a few shots and moved on thinking it was wasted bits – got home and decided I really liked the results.

Wish I would have spent more time with it and tried a few more angles. I struggled with left or right spacing (tend to always go with direction specimen is facing) and looking at it now would bring up the brightness a titch on the background without losing the rich pink hues. Will have to see how I like this in print..probably a metal print to be specific.

Although not as abundant as the Teal or thank god the Coot, the Osprey has to come in near the top of my most snapped targets. They are one of my favorites – intimidating, lethal, sharp coloring and who doesn’t like a gorgeous yellow eye. Problem – I get trigger happy when I see them. Come to the point now where I tend to not even process Ospreys in the open sky unless there is something else intriguing about it like a fish dangling from a single talon. Would have rather had the grass line a little lower on these two shots, however, I do like the subtle cross.

Need some more work to get additional detail out of the feathers and pop the eye out more (looks better in the larger size if you hit the link). Definitely loose the feel of that deadly hooked bill when they turn their heads.

Like the Osprey, my folders are full of Snowy Egret shots. Must be some psychological fixation with yellow feet – see those galoshes and my camera shutter starts flapping away. Like most brilliant white feathered birds, getting detail in the feathers is the difficult part. I find overcast days the best for these tall waders. They tend to be pretty calm allowing me to push the ISO down/Shutter speed up to shed off the glare.

Find myself pushing the background as dark as I can just to show off the beautiful plumage. Suspect this particular specimen was a juvenile seeing as how its bill has not taken on the solid black coloring.

Eh, throwing in another just for fun,.

Okay, I’ve covered the “too common”, the “brief encounter” and “redundant poses” categories. I’ve saved the last for the end, the “what the hell is it” category.

I spend a lot of time with my nose buried in reference books, DuckDuckGo’ing and, of course, devouring Cornell’s site trying to build up my bird foundation and/or tracking down the latest tin. Everyone has trouble with Sparrows, Gulls and Peeps – nature of the beast with those species. I happen to also have a hard time with Hawks. Get lucky and catch a glimpse of a red tail in the sun or catch a screech on the Merlin app… good to go.

Shoot one, sitting wings folded on a post, in the middle of rain shower, soaking wet… that is a different story, at least for me. I don’t see the familiar bib or hood of the Red-Tailed (could just be the wet feathers). Swainson’s tend to have a collar, Short-Tailed have solid/darker sides of head. The Juvenile Light Morph of the Broad-Winged seems awfully close looking at Cornell’s reference shot.

I am just not sure – throw in all the morphs, juveniles, suntanned, beadazzeled, feather tinting (apparently very popular during the Covid years), wigs and fancy stretch leggins .. my head begins to whirl. In case there are proficient Hawkers out there, this particular specimen was taken at Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge in January 2022. Any ideas/thoughts/WAGs would be greatly appreciated.

That’s a wrap, a nice dump of images I would normally keep hidden away. Hope you enjoyed Birdapalooza II (first one link here). Take care and keep an eye out for Brad’s upcoming posts.