{"id":1288,"date":"2011-05-10T08:24:46","date_gmt":"2011-05-10T13:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/?p=1288"},"modified":"2011-05-10T08:24:46","modified_gmt":"2011-05-10T13:24:46","slug":"at-last-a-fallout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/2011\/05\/10\/at-last-a-fallout\/","title":{"rendered":"At Last…A Fallout!"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 20 is always\u00a0close to\u00a0being the\u00a0peak of the\u00a0spring songbird migration through south Texas.\u00a0 Unfortunately, this spring a\u00a0constant, southerly\u00a0wind carried most of the birds right on over us.\u00a0 It was last week,\u00a0early May, before\u00a0a “fallout” finally occurred at South Padre Island.\u00a0\u00a0It was a little\u00a0late\u00a0to see\u00a0great numbers of birds, but three days of brisk\u00a0north wind\u00a0forced a nice diversity of birds\u00a0to seek refuge on the island.\u00a0\u00a0It was a\u00a0wonderful photography event!<\/p>\n

Here are some of the beauties that flew to my lens last week:<\/p>\n

Click on the photos to make them open in a larger, sharper format.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"American<\/a>
American Redstart male twitching about in search of a bug.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I saw more redstarts at South Padre Island last week than\u00a0in the past ten years combined.<\/p>\n

\"Female<\/a>
Female Baltimore Oriole feeding at Coral Bean flowers in the South Padre Island Convention Center thicket.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n
\"This<\/a>
This Chestnut-sided Warbler's urgent need for food brought him within my arm's length on several occasions. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\"A<\/a>
A Buff-bellied Hummingbird taking its turn at the Coral Bean blooms.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most of these photos were taken with the Canon 7D camera (set for high speed shutter action…8 frames\/second),\u00a0a 500 mm IS lens,\u00a01.4X teleconverter, ISO between 400-1,000 depending on the light, while maintaining something close to 1\/2,000 second shutter speed @ f 5.6 – f 11.\u00a0\u00a0Most of the time, I was using\u00a0fill flash\u00a0with a Better Beamer attached.\u00a0 I almost\u00a0always\u00a0shoot\u00a0with\u00a0flash power reduced – 2 2\/3 f stops from full power.\u00a0\u00a0 For shooting songbirds, I recommend using a 25 mm extension tube between the lens and camera\u00a0to allow extra close focusing.\u00a0 Mine was on the blink last week, but\u00a0a good cleaning revived it.\u00a0\u00a0*One of the pins was sticking and couldn’t spring\u00a0into normal\u00a0alignment as the extension tube was attached to the lens.\u00a0 Remember that when yours decides to fail.<\/p>\n

\"Bay-breasted<\/a>
Bay-breasted Warblers are always scarce at South Padre. This one gave me several shots, but it never looked at the camera.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
One of a flock of tired Dickcissels arriving at the South Padre Island Convention Center as we unpacked our photo gear. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
I saw a flock of Dickcissels arrive as I was getting my gear unpacked\u00a0for\u00a0an afternoon shoot.\u00a0 They were so tired\u00a0I was able to\u00a0move\u00a0in for a close-up before they\u00a0whirled away.<\/div>\n
\n
\"A<\/a>
A male Orchard Oriole ready to launch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Magnolia<\/a>
Magnolia Warbler male searching a thistle plant for insects.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
Magnolia Warblers in spring plumage\u00a0have always been my favorite.\u00a0 Their contrasting yellow and black plumage and black necklace\u00a0are striking.\u00a0 This bird returned to the thistle plant on several occasions and even hovered\u00a0long enough for this photo.<\/div>\n
\n
\"Magnolia<\/a>
Magnolia Warbler hovering at a thistle bloom while picking off insects.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n
\"A<\/a>
A Grey Catbird in search of ripe Berlandier Fiddlewood fruit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Ruby-throated<\/a>
Ruby-throated Hummingbird male feeding at sunset.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Each time this male ruby-throated hummingbird came in, I blazed away, trying to capture that\u00a0incredible throat at a good sun angle\u00a0to bring out\u00a0the irridescent red.\u00a0 Just before\u00a0the sun set, I got the shot.<\/p>\n

Two days later, Steve Bentsen and I spent a morning on his ranch trying to call birds\u00a0with another friend,\u00a0Richard Moore.\u00a0 A little after sunrise, we got this Black-tailed Gnatcatcher.\u00a0\u00a0The rest of our trip was a dry run, so assumed that the extremely dry\u00a0weather is causing\u00a0many species to delay\u00a0breeding.<\/p>\n

\"It<\/a>
It is critical to position the camera to capture a bird in front of a smooth, clean background. This gnatcatcher wouldn't land on "my" perch, but he did land in front of a nice background.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
I\u00a0am thankful for that\u00a0one “fallout” this spring\u00a0and for having the chance to photograph it.\u00a0 It is\u00a0a thrill\u00a0to share the experience with\u00a0others who appreciate nature’s beauty.\u00a0<\/div>\n
Larry<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 20 is always\u00a0close to\u00a0being the\u00a0peak of the\u00a0spring songbird migration through south Texas.\u00a0 Unfortunately, this spring a\u00a0constant, southerly\u00a0wind carried most of the birds right on over us.\u00a0 It was last week,\u00a0early May, before\u00a0a “fallout” finally occurred at South Padre Island.\u00a0\u00a0It was a little\u00a0late\u00a0to see\u00a0great numbers of birds, but three days of brisk\u00a0north wind\u00a0forced a nice … Continue reading At Last…A Fallout!<\/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-1288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1288","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=1288"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1310,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1288\/revisions\/1310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}