{"id":1230,"date":"2011-04-15T16:11:45","date_gmt":"2011-04-15T21:11:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/?p=1230"},"modified":"2011-04-15T16:11:45","modified_gmt":"2011-04-15T21:11:45","slug":"busy-spring-in-south-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/2011\/04\/15\/busy-spring-in-south-texas\/","title":{"rendered":"Busy Spring in South Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

April has been a busy one.\u00a0 I just got back from doing several workshops at FeatherFest in Galveston, then I spent three days guiding\u00a0on the Santa Clara Ranch,\u00a0and next week I’m off to South Padre Island for a spring migrant birds instructional photo tour.\u00a0\u00a0Immediately after that workshop,\u00a0I will be leading a workshop on the Hoak Ranch near Ozona, Texas.<\/p>\n

The Caddo Lake Instructional Photo Tour had to be cancelled for this spring…just not enough participants.\u00a0 It has always been\u00a0the most productive and fun of all the photo trips I lead, so it was especially difficult having to pull the plug.\u00a0 If you have been wanting to do that one, set aside some vacation time for the first week of May\u00a02012.<\/p>\n

For those of you who shoot with\u00a0Nikon equipment, I know of a couple of great lens buys.\u00a0 Contact Sherry\u00a0( sherhal@aol.com<\/a> ).\u00a0 She has a Nikon 300 mm f4 and a Sigma 50-500 mm zoom, both less than a year old (the Sigma is only 2 months old) and like new.\u00a0 The lenses are excellent but her husband surprised her with a new Nikon 400 mm f2.8 just a few days ago, so she is eager to sell\u00a0the other telephotos.<\/p>\n

Here are some shots\u00a0captured on recent trips.\u00a0 The mud dauber photos were lots of fun because I got\u00a0into the macro world of bees and wasps for a couple of hours (it was a slow day in the bird blind).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Click in the upper right portion of the photo to enlarge if for a larger, sharper view and to move on to the next photo.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Mud<\/a>
Mud Dauber and escort with a ball of mud<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
I got this shot with the 300 mm lens, 1.4 X teleconverter and 25 mm extension tube.\u00a0 To\u00a0stop the motion, used the following\u00a0settings: ISO 1250, 1\/2000 sec. @ f10\u00a0with the Canon 7D camera.\u00a0 Of course, this is really a high speed, multi-flash type shot that should be done at f 22, but I made do with what I had.<\/div>\n
\n
\"Mourning<\/a>
Mourning dove take-off with water flying<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
It usually takes 10-20 trys to get a good take off shot of birds\u00a0at the water hole, but the reward is great when it all comes together.\u00a0 I shot this one with the Canon 1D Mark III and Canon 100-400 mm lens at 400 mm setting, 1\/3200 sec. @ f 5.6 with the ISO set at 500.<\/div>\n
\n
\"Common<\/a>
Common Yellowthroat about to bathe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
This male common yellowthroat was very nervous, but eventually got a bath.\u00a0 He is one of the early migrant songbirds to reach the Santa Clara Ranch this spring.<\/div>\n
\n
\"Eastern<\/a>
Eastern Cottontail keeping those toenails clipped.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
Grooming is always tiring, so one should stretch out an relax after such hard work.<\/div>\n
\n
\"Eastern<\/a>
Eastern Cottontail resting in the cool dust of the south Texas desert brushlands.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"A<\/a>
A handfull of corn isn't enough to satisfy two javelinas, so something has to give.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n
\"This<\/a>
This Audubon's Oriole perched on one of the few guayacan plants to bloom this spring.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
I had to hunt long and hard this spring for a guayacan bush with blooms that might make a good perch for bird portraits.\u00a0 The Audubon’s orioles have\u00a0temporarily altered their winter\u00a0routine\u00a0and begun nest building.<\/div>\n
\n
\"This<\/a>
This pair of Long-billed Thrashers regularly visited the photo blind water hole, even while nest building.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n
\"The<\/a>
The Roel Ramirez Ranch at Roma, Texas still boasts large numbers of south Texas birds at the photo blinds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"This<\/a>
This colorful verdin looked stiking atop the blooming guayacan bush. Water and fresh orange slices attract the guys to south Texas photo blinds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Golden-fronted<\/a>
Golden-fronted Woodpeckers readily land on guayacan bush perches, too.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"This<\/a>
This coming week, we hope to see lots of Royal terns and songbirds at the South Padre Island Photo Tour.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
During the South Padre Island Photo Tour, we\u00a0plan to get eye-to-eye\u00a0with the Laguna Madre beach\u00a0terns, shorebirds, and gulls.\u00a0 These breeding terns were captured with the Canon 1D Mark III and\u00a0500 mm IS lens atop a bean bag\u00a0cradled in a frisbee.\u00a0 I got a little damp on the underside, but it was fun.\u00a0\u00a0Nevertheless, an 80″\u00a0\u00a0plastic body-skid for beach photography would be nice.<\/div>\n
Thank you, Lord, for your beautiful creation.<\/div>\n
Larry<\/em><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April has been a busy one.\u00a0 I just got back from doing several workshops at FeatherFest in Galveston, then I spent three days guiding\u00a0on the Santa Clara Ranch,\u00a0and next week I’m off to South Padre Island for a spring migrant birds instructional photo tour.\u00a0\u00a0Immediately after that workshop,\u00a0I will be leading a workshop on the Hoak … Continue reading Busy Spring in South Texas<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1230"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1254,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230\/revisions\/1254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}