{"id":1761,"date":"2012-03-17T14:43:03","date_gmt":"2012-03-17T19:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/?p=1761"},"modified":"2012-03-17T14:43:03","modified_gmt":"2012-03-17T19:43:03","slug":"signs-of-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/2012\/03\/17\/signs-of-spring\/","title":{"rendered":"Signs of Spring"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is still very dry in south Texas, but we have had enough rain to make the brush leaf out and a few wildflowers are blooming.\u00a0 Most notable among the south Texas wildflowers is lantana which grows in clumps with clusters of small orange flowers.<\/p>\n

For the photo below, I placed a perch in front of the lantana and provided some seeds to attract the birds.\u00a0 This olive sparrow was the first to arrive.\u00a0 Olive sparrows\u00a0are residents of\u00a0south Texas and Mexico and are seldom seen\u00a0in the U.S. except in the lower Rio Grande counties.<\/p>\n

Remember, you can view these photos in a larger, sharper format by clicking on the photo.\u00a0 Move your cursor to the upper righthand portion of each shot to find the advance button.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Olive Sparrow and lantana at the Santa Clara Ranch west of Edinburg, Texas.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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When you want to add color to a photo, try this technique.\u00a0 I recommend either putting the perch among the flowers so that they are identifiable or placing the perch well in front of the flowers so that only their color appears as a background.\u00a0\u00a0I set this perch for another photographer and\u00a0it was much too close to the flowers for my taste.\u00a0 I did some blurring of the background in Photoshop, but it works better to move the perch even farther away to\u00a0smooth the appearance of the greenery.\u00a0\u00a0That is more easily accomplished with\u00a0a large telephoto lens.<\/p>\n

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Common Ground-Dove in wildflowers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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This common ground-dove feeding amoung small composite wildflowers is an example of placing the subject among the color rather than well in front of it.\u00a0 The flowers become a part of the subject.<\/p>\n

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Rio Grande Turkey males gobble in response to other turkeys calling and to artificial calls and loud noises when they are displaying for females in the spring.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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I was on the ground when this big gobbler strolled by.\u00a0 A friend slammed the truck door while I was focused on the bird and, as expected, the turkey gobbled.<\/p>\n

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Strutting Rio Grande Turkey in spring wildflowers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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A heavy fog was lifting one morning last week when I captured this photo.\u00a0 The wet flowers and grass had\u00a0soaked the tips of this gobbler’s tail feathers.<\/p>\n

I got this photo from ground level using a Gitzo cf tripod, Wimberly head, Canon 7D camera and Canon IS 500 mm lens.\u00a0 In Photoshop, I toned down the sky to provide a nice contrasting background to the tail without being overly white and distracting.<\/p>\n

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Turkeys mating...one of the first signs of spring in south Texas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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This is one of the few, really sharp photos of this mating sequence (about 150 frames).\u00a0\u00a0We drove up on this scene and I eased out the passenger side of the truck with the 7D and 500 mm lens.\u00a0 I hastily moved to a\u00a0fence post\u00a0and used it for support.\u00a0 As it turned out, the turkeys were preoccupied and didn’t seem to notice me.\u00a0 I should have grabbed the tripod from the back of the truck.<\/p>\n

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Golden-fronted Woodpecker male in flight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Golden-fronted woodpeckers were fairly active in recent weeks.\u00a0 By anticipating this guy’s flight path, I was able to capture a fairly sharp action\u00a0photo.\u00a0 Below are other birds and such made recently.<\/p>\n

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Golden-fronted Woodpecker alertly checking his surroundings.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Turkey Vulture searching for a meal. This vulture's wing span must have been close to 6'.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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White-tailed Hawk looking back at the camera.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Three of us were patiently waiting for this white-tailed hawk to land on a baited perch.\u00a0 Instead,\u00a0it slipped in from the side\u00a0for a\u00a0fly-by\u00a0but, fortunately,\u00a0graced us with one look back.<\/p>\n

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Redhead ducks on take-off.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Redhead ducks\u00a0began leaving\u00a0the Laguna Madre in recent days.\u00a0 I had\u00a0 three or four wonderful days in late winter and early spring\u00a0photographing them in flight.\u00a0 These photos are all take-off shots.<\/p>\n

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Male Redhead duck with wingtip hitting the water on take-off.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Water flies as redhead ducks begin their running take-off.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The photo above was really tough for the auto-focus lens.\u00a0 Fortunately, the sensor acquired the male redhead\u00a0 that was slightly above and near the front of the flock.\u00a0 It made for a nice composition.\u00a0 Mostly, I like the action conveyed by the splashing water and raised wings.<\/p>\n

Finally, I offer this shot of a chicken and buck white-tailed deer sharing breakfast at the rancher’s trough.\u00a0 Judging from the look in the buck’s eye, the rooster rules the roost.<\/p>\n

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White-tailed deer eyeing a hungry rooster at the feed trough.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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I hope to meet some of you in the field real soon,<\/p>\n

Larry<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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It is still very dry in south Texas, but we have had enough rain to make the brush leaf out and a few wildflowers are blooming.\u00a0 Most notable among the south Texas wildflowers is lantana which grows in clumps with clusters of small orange flowers. For the photo below, I placed a perch in front … Continue reading Signs of Spring<\/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-1761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1761","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=1761"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1778,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1761\/revisions\/1778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}