{"id":2313,"date":"2013-05-09T15:15:59","date_gmt":"2013-05-09T20:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/?p=2313"},"modified":"2013-05-09T15:15:59","modified_gmt":"2013-05-09T20:15:59","slug":"block-creek-natural-area-instructional-photo-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/2013\/05\/09\/block-creek-natural-area-instructional-photo-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"Block Creek Natural Area Instructional Photo Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seven of us photographed in late April near Fredericksburg, Texas in the hill country at Block Creek Natural Area\u00a0with hosts Sharron and Larry Jay.\u00a0 The Jays had installed two new blinds earlier in the year and both had good numbers of birds.\u00a0 For four days, we worked the blinds, photographed hawks and owls presented by “Last Chance Forever” raptor recovery group, and worked the area’s many hummingbirds with my flash setup.\u00a0 We had\u00a0good luck at all these locations, but the breeding birds had not arrived in huge numbers as they usually do by mid-April.\u00a0\u00a0As the week came to a close, two photographers joined me for an\u00a0afternoon\u00a0while we\u00a0refined our Photoshop skills.<\/p>\n

The food and lodging at Block Creek Natural area were superb, as always.\u00a0 That and\u00a0entertaining conversation around the dinner table kept things lively and fun.<\/p>\n

Check the photos that follow to see a variety of what\u00a0I photographed.\u00a0 This is just a small sample of\u00a0what the group\u00a0captured\u00a0during the photo tour.<\/p>\n

Remember, just click on a photo to open it in a larger, sharper format.\u00a0 Then move your cursor to the upper right portion of a photo to advance.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Scissor-tailed Flycatcher pair getting ready to nest.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These scissortails landed on a fence near Larry Jay and me on the last afternoon of the photo tour.\u00a0 The capture was with a Canon 1D mark IV, 500 mm lens. 1.4 teleconverter, Feisol tripod and Wimberley head, ISO 500, 1\/3200 second @ f5.6.<\/p>\n

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Female black-chinned hummingbird feeding.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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My time at the hummingbird setup was limited to a few minutes to get the flashes adjusted.\u00a0 After that, the other photographers\u00a0occupied every minute\u00a0at the set and captured hundreds of amazing shots.\u00a0 I’ll get there a day early next year.\u00a0 There were many opportunities to photograph hummingbirds around the headquarters flower gardens, so that is where I went after being\u00a0ousted from\u00a0the setup area.<\/p>\n

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Male black-chinned hummingbird guarding his territory near some trumpet vines.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Windmill and full moon in front of the Block Creek Natural Area bed and breakfast.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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During our first evening at Block Creek NA, some of us captured the rising moon and a flock of purple martins headed to roost.<\/p>\n

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Purple martins making one last flight before coming back to the nest box for the night.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Black vulture landing on handler's glove.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The Harris's Hawk doesn't always return to the handler's glove.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Harris's hawk landing by yucca.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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I cloned the jesses off the legs of this captive hawk.<\/p>\n

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Great horned owl with rat for dinner.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Canyon wrens were nesting in the Jay's barn.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Carolina wren drawn to photo perch with mealworms.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Red-tailed hawk surveying the grasslands near a Block Creek NA barn.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Male eastern bluebird singing on breeding territory.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Fence lines around the Block Creek NA area are always active with colorful birds like this painted bunting.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Chipping sparrows frequent Block Creek feeding perches.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Pine Siskin perched on blooming buckeye.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The buckeye trees along Block Creek were blooming in late April and afforded beautiful perches.\u00a0 Most\u00a0Texans probably don’t know the buckeye is native here, although\u00a0the hill country trees are a different species from those in the eastern U.S.<\/p>\n

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House finches were common at each of the photo blinds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Beautiful male Painted Bunting eating millet seeds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Vermilion flycatcher looking for insects on the wing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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You can see that we had a great variety of birds in the Texas hill country this year.\u00a0 Many more arrived after a spring cold front\u00a0blew through central\u00a0Texas\u00a0three days\u00a0after we departed.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Timing is everything, but we had plenty of good shooting.<\/p>\n

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

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

Seven of us photographed in late April near Fredericksburg, Texas in the hill country at Block Creek Natural Area\u00a0with hosts Sharron and Larry Jay.\u00a0 The Jays had installed two new blinds earlier in the year and both had good numbers of birds.\u00a0 For four days, we worked the blinds, photographed hawks and owls presented by … Continue reading Block Creek Natural Area Instructional Photo Tour<\/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-2313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2313","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=2313"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2340,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2313\/revisions\/2340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}