{"id":3539,"date":"2016-01-19T10:04:23","date_gmt":"2016-01-19T16:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/?p=3539"},"modified":"2016-01-19T16:23:46","modified_gmt":"2016-01-19T22:23:46","slug":"slow-morning-on-the-laguna-madre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/2016\/01\/19\/slow-morning-on-the-laguna-madre\/","title":{"rendered":"Slow Morning on the Laguna Madre"},"content":{"rendered":"

I spent three hours yesterday morning photographing birds and a kayaker on the Laguna Madre at South Padre Island.\u00a0 The weather was beautiful with a gentle north wind blowing down the\u00a0bay and the sun at my back.\u00a0\u00a0Hoping for some good flight photography, I patiently wasted 2\/3 of my time waiting for ducks and pelicans that just\u00a0didn’t come …at least not by air.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Fortunately, there were\u00a0some\u00a0birds about so, I took advantage of\u00a0their feeding and loafing activity.<\/p>\n

Using\u00a0a Canon 7d II camera\u00a0and 500 mm lens on the Gitzo tripod and Wimberley head, I had enough telephoto reach to make some reasonable captures.\u00a0 Here are a few images from a slow morning on the Laguna Madre:\u00a0 Click on an image to enlarge and sharpen it for viewing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
This male American wigeon was one of the few airborne birds of the morning.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I prefer for birds in flight to be a little closer to my eye-level, but this bird was acceptable.\u00a0 Wing position and light angle are important, of course.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
An unusual sight, this cinnamon teal male swam by looking for a freshwater inflow where he could drink and bathe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"One<\/a>
One of the drake redheads that\u00a0drifted by.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Mottled<\/a>
Mottled duck drake (yellow bill) loafing in the shallows with\u00a0good cover.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

*** When the wind is out of the northwest, photographers are mostly seeing the rear end of birds as they face into the wind.\u00a0 It is important to capture the subject look back over its shoulder.<\/p>\n

\"Red-breasted<\/a>
Red-breasted merganser drake shaking water.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
This red-breasted merganser was faster than his unlucky prey.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A beautiful morning to kayak the shallow Laguna Madre.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Clapper<\/a>
Clapper rail\u00a0on the hunt for invertebrates\u00a0along the shoreline.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Common<\/a>
Common gallinule at first light.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Great<\/a>
Great blue heron cleaning his bill.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Tricolored<\/a>
Tricolored heron preening on a black mangrove perch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Reddish<\/a>
Reddish egret herding a school of silvery fish in the shallows.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

…and so the morning ended.\u00a0 There are many birds about the Laguna Madre this time of year, but success is always regulated by wind speed and direction\u00a0and by the tides.\u00a0 It takes some planning and good luck to\u00a0catch a “fast” morning on the bay.\u00a0 I’ll hit it right before winter ends.<\/p>\n

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

I spent three hours yesterday morning photographing birds and a kayaker on the Laguna Madre at South Padre Island.\u00a0 The weather was beautiful with a gentle north wind blowing down the\u00a0bay and the sun at my back.\u00a0\u00a0Hoping for some good flight photography, I patiently wasted 2\/3 of my time waiting for ducks and pelicans that … Continue reading Slow Morning on the Laguna Madre<\/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-3539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3539","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=3539"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3557,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3539\/revisions\/3557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}