{"id":3710,"date":"2016-05-07T22:49:39","date_gmt":"2016-05-08T03:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/?p=3710"},"modified":"2016-05-08T07:19:04","modified_gmt":"2016-05-08T12:19:04","slug":"transition-ranch-and-april-bird-diversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/2016\/05\/07\/transition-ranch-and-april-bird-diversity\/","title":{"rendered":"Transition Ranch and April Bird Diversity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like last spring, the Texas hill country caught a lot of rain in April and the bird photography instructional photo tours endured a few overcast, cool and even drizzly days.\u00a0 Nevertheless, we saw a lot of nice birds at Block Creek Natural Area (Turkey Hollow B&B) and at Transition Ranch near Uvalde.\u00a0 I was at Transition all of last week with two groups of photographers\u00a0 where we worked from photo blinds and by walking some of the roads bordered by wildflowers.<\/p>\n

A dry spring will bring\u00a0more birds to the\u00a0waterholes and food at the blinds, but I think you will see some indications of the ranch’s potential in the following photos.<\/p>\n

Remember to click on an image to enlarge and sharpen it for viewing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Spring<\/a>
Spring wildflowers\u00a0in the orange glow of sunset.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Except for the image above, I used my 500 mm lens for virtually every shot.\u00a0 This image was made with Canon 5D Mark II and 24-105 mm lens at f22 and tripod mounted.<\/p>\n

\"White-winged<\/a>
White-winged dove in black brush at sunset.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Northern<\/a>
Northern bobwhite quail calling from a short perch in wildflowers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mexican<\/a>
Mexican ground-squirrel\u00a0searching an old for bird seed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lesser<\/a>
Lesser goldfinches visited the photo blind waterhole\u00a0just before sunset.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"House<\/a>
House Finch bonding behavior.\u00a0 The male fed the female.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Black-throated<\/a>
Black-throated Sparrow with a firm grasp of the only landing spot on a prickly pear cactus.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Ash-throated<\/a><\/p>\n

This ash-throated flycatcher was at the blind for only a moment.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Gray<\/a>
Gray Vireo on Transition Ranch west of Uvalde, Texas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The gray vireo above is pretty rare in the hill country but they can thrive in the diverse habitats of the Transition Ranch.<\/p>\n

\"Summer<\/a>
Summer Tanager, female perched in black brush. Transition Ranch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Summer<\/a>
Summer Tanager, male at photo blind.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Hooded<\/a>
Hooded Oriole, male perched in black brush at photo blind.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Various orioles have already begun to nest.<\/p>\n

\"Scott's<\/a>
Scott’s Oriole, male in Texas persimmon bush.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"This<\/a>
This\u00a0cedar waxwing\u00a0was probably one of the last we’ll see this season.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Singing<\/a>
Singing blue-gray gnatcatcher at the afternoon blind.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Blue<\/a>
Blue Grosbeak, male in black brush after rain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Blue grosbeaks were popping up everywhere during the last half of the week (around May 1).<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
This male lazuli bunting was the first of it’s species photographed on the ranch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Male<\/a>
Male painted buntings were singing throughout the ranch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Vermillion<\/a>
Vermilion Flycatcher male perched.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vermilion flycatchers are among the early nesters at Transition Ranch and one pair fledged their young while we were there in late April.<\/p>\n

\"Western<\/a>
Western scrub jay perched at Transition Ranch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This pose of western scrub jay was one of my favorite shots of the week.\u00a0 Slight head-turn makes the photo.<\/p>\n

\"Yellow-breasted<\/a>
Yellow-breasted chat “chatting”.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a\u00a0chattering contest between cactus wrens and yellow-breasted chats, it was a close call to name the winner.\u00a0 They never let up.<\/p>\n

\"Black-capped<\/a>
Black-capped vireo on Transition Ranch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Black-capped vireos are found throughout the ranch in abundant mixed\u00a0thickets of scrubby oak, Texas\u00a0persimmon and sumac.<\/p>\n

\"Golden-cheeked<\/a>
Golden-cheeked warbler on juniper, Transition Ranch, Texas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These little guys love the juniper thickets of Transition Ranch.<\/p>\n

As the days grow warmer and dryer, even more birds will find their way to the fresh water and food at the ranch’s photo blinds.\u00a0 Like most south Texas ranches, the bird diversity is wonderful and the photo ops are abundant.<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like last spring, the Texas hill country caught a lot of rain in April and the bird photography instructional photo tours endured a few overcast, cool and even drizzly days.\u00a0 Nevertheless, we saw a lot of nice birds at Block Creek Natural Area (Turkey Hollow B&B) and at Transition Ranch near Uvalde.\u00a0 I was at … Continue reading Transition Ranch and April Bird Diversity<\/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-3710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3710","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=3710"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3738,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3710\/revisions\/3738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}