{"id":2844,"date":"2014-05-07T09:12:34","date_gmt":"2014-05-07T14:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/?p=2844"},"modified":"2014-05-07T09:12:34","modified_gmt":"2014-05-07T14:12:34","slug":"block-creek-birds-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/2014\/05\/07\/block-creek-birds-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Block Creek Birds and More"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, I was at the Block Creek Natural Area near Comfort, Texas to lead an instructional\u00a0photo tour with three other photographers and our hosts Sharron and Larry Jay.\u00a0 It was a fun four days with good company, great food and\u00a0lots of wildlife.<\/p>\n

During the week, John Karger, Director of “Last Chance Forever” brought several of his\u00a0hawks and owls to the ranch.\u00a0 It was educational and gave\u00a0us an opportunity to photograph the birds at close range.<\/p>\n

The following group of images\u00a0should give you a pretty good idea of\u00a0the beauty and wildlife diversity we enjoyed.\u00a0 Be sure to click on the right side of each image to enlarge and sharpen it and to find the “next” arrow to take you through the images.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Block Creek Natural Area Bed & Breakfast on a cool, clear night with crescent moon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During the photo tour, we\u00a0experienced unbelievably great weather with cool days and chilly, clear nights.<\/p>\n

\"Star<\/a>
Star trails behind the old windmill right outside the front door.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The painted bunting was number one on everybody’s priority list for this shoot.\u00a0 No one was disappointed.<\/p>\n

\"Male<\/a>
Male painted bunting and butterfly milkweed at an evening blind.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Each of us tried to hold our camera settings at 1\/2000th second to stop flight action and head motion.\u00a0 During the sunrise and sunset hours, we had to settle for something slower, but we never stopped looking for\u00a0behavior and action shots.\u00a0 The bunting was at 1\/640th second\u00a0and f4;\u00a0the goldfinch was 1\/400th second and f4.\u00a0 Except for the hawks and owls where I used a wide angle lens or small zoom on the\u00a0Canon 7D,\u00a0\u00a0my\u00a0bird captures were made with the 500 mm IS lens and Feisol carbon-fiber tripod with Wimberley head.<\/p>\n

\"Lesser<\/a>
Lesser goldfinch launching from perch at an evening blind.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"the<\/a>
The reddish phase eastern screech was the first I’d seen or photographed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Harris's<\/a>
Harris’s Hawk in a dive.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Harris's<\/a>
Harris’s Hawk landing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This hawk passed within two feet of my head and 24 mm lens\u00a0while landing.<\/p>\n

\"Male<\/a>
Male black-chinned hummingbird feeding at lantana blooms near a photo blind.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Black-chinned<\/a>
Black-chinned hummingbirds, male and female, feeding at a thistle flower with grass as a background and natural light.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Fox<\/a>
Fox squirrels and wild turkey visited several photo blinds each day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Black-crested<\/a>
Black-crested titmice were at every blind.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Male<\/a>
Male house finch in colorful, spring\u00a0plumage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Chipping<\/a>
Chipping sparrows were common around the photography blinds at Block Creek Natural Area.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Male<\/a>
Male vermilion flycatcher on thistle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Having saved the best for last, we photographed this male vermilion flycatcher on Sunday morning in a meadow in front of the ranch house.<\/p>\n

I hope to lead another photo tour at the Block Creek Natural Area next spring during the first week of May.\u00a0 Plan to join me if you like colorful birds, starry skies\u00a0and good food.<\/p>\n

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

Last week, I was at the Block Creek Natural Area near Comfort, Texas to lead an instructional\u00a0photo tour with three other photographers and our hosts Sharron and Larry Jay.\u00a0 It was a fun four days with good company, great food and\u00a0lots of wildlife. During the week, John Karger, Director of “Last Chance Forever” brought several … Continue reading Block Creek Birds and More<\/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-2844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2844","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=2844"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2860,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2844\/revisions\/2860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}