{"id":1949,"date":"2012-07-26T07:55:13","date_gmt":"2012-07-26T12:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/?p=1949"},"modified":"2012-07-26T08:27:21","modified_gmt":"2012-07-26T13:27:21","slug":"what-do-roadrunners-do-when-its-102","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/2012\/07\/26\/what-do-roadrunners-do-when-its-102\/","title":{"rendered":"What do Roadrunners do When It’s 102"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roadrunners and most of the other\u00a0wildlife were hanging around the water hole last week when the\u00a0thermometer hit 102 in the afternoon.\u00a0 At Santa Clara Ranch, Beto Gutierrez and I sat at blind #3 and photographed thirsty wildlife during the last three hours of\u00a0light on July 20.\u00a0 Many birds still looked good (not too much molting, yet).\u00a0 The roadrunners were nailing grasshoppers and one\u00a0little Mexican ground-squirrel had a hopper, too.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0good variety of wildlife was drinking, including bobwhite quail, cardinals, cowbirds, hawks, cuckoos, roadrunners, cottontail rabbits, black-throated sparrows, woodpeckers, mockingbirds and painted buntings.\u00a0 I left my flash at home…big mistake.\u00a0 Beto was popping the flash and getting\u00a0good\u00a0action (raised wings and takeoffs)\u00a0from many birds.<\/p>\n

It has been so hot, I’ve stayed indoors\u00a0most of July, but maybe I’ll get myself\u00a0out to the Laguna Madre for a little kayaking, soon.\u00a0 I might even\u00a0try finding a whitetail fawn or two later this week.\u00a0\u00a0A Brownsville friend, Stephen Sinclair, has been doing quite well at South Padre Island, Sabal Palm Sanctuary and Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge.\u00a0 Steve is\u00a0serious\u00a0about nature photography and tries to shoot every day.<\/p>\n

Ok, here are a few shots from\u00a0waterhole #3:<\/p>\n

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When it's 102, roadrunners pant a lot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Fat, juicy grasshoppers are almost as good as a cool drink.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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A quick focus is required to capture the roadrunner photo once its prey is caught.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Even grasshoppers must go down head first.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Omnivorous Mexican Ground-Squirrel gets the grasshopper first.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Northern Cardinals still had good plumage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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This yellow-billed cuckoo was too nervous to come on in for a drink and too close for a full protrait.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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I never get tired of seeing painted buntings at the pond.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Wary Swainson's Hawk.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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When working at\u00a0blinds\u00a0with permanent ponds, photographers have to decide whether they will leave everything\u00a0natural\u00a0or set up perches for songbirds.\u00a0 We elected to\u00a0set\u00a0out a small tripod to hold a fresh tree branch\u00a0for songbirds.\u00a0 This wary Swainson’s Hawk spotted it and eventually flew off without a drink.\u00a0\u00a0I wonder what would have made the best photo, my\u00a010,000th cardinal shot or a nice pose of a bathing\u00a0hawk????\u00a0\u00a0Consolation: little, the cardinals certainly gave us more\u00a0action on this day.<\/p>\n

Larry<\/p>\n

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

Roadrunners and most of the other\u00a0wildlife were hanging around the water hole last week when the\u00a0thermometer hit 102 in the afternoon.\u00a0 At Santa Clara Ranch, Beto Gutierrez and I sat at blind #3 and photographed thirsty wildlife during the last three hours of\u00a0light on July 20.\u00a0 Many birds still looked good (not too much molting, … Continue reading What do Roadrunners do When It’s 102<\/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-1949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949","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=1949"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1966,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949\/revisions\/1966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}