{"id":7750,"date":"2020-11-18T15:36:09","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T21:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/?p=7750"},"modified":"2020-11-18T16:58:42","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T22:58:42","slug":"on-the-lower-rio-grande-november","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/2020\/11\/18\/on-the-lower-rio-grande-november\/","title":{"rendered":"on the Lower Rio Grande, November"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I crossed the river levee near Brownsville and drove through the Border Wall gate Tuesday morning without seeing a Border Patrol vehicle (trust me, they were watching from somewhere). The crisp autumn air was invigorating as I walked to the photo blind with a load of heavy gear… without sweating. As the sun climbed, I could hear migrating sandhill cranes high above, winging their way southward to Mexico for the winter. It was a perfect morning for wildlife photography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After getting up at 5:00 AM, I photographed from daylight until 11:00 AM before heading home to edit images at the computer. Here are a few of the captures from the outing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Great Egret and White Ibis next to black willow on Sabal Palm Sanctuary.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Great Kiskadees with a dragonfly breakfast.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Green Kingfisher searching for an unsuspecting minnow.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Green Kingfisher avoiding detection by a passing peregrine falcon. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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With the falcon circling, the green kingfisher adopts a more agressive posture and the falcon leaves. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cautious Least Grebes collecting some of the morning’s warmth under their feathers.
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A drake Mottled Duck spent a half hour in front of my blind, drinking and preening.
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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My favorite shot of the day, a Ringed Kingfisher diving for small fish.
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I’m hoping to get a few nice butterfly shots before Thanksgiving, so the next trip will be out to the National Butterfly Center south of Mission, Texas. Recently, butterfly watchers have identified a half dozen rare butterfly species along with hundreds of more common lepidopterans. It’s worth the trip if you can get there while the days are warm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Larry<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

I crossed the river levee near Brownsville and drove through the Border Wall gate Tuesday morning without seeing a Border Patrol vehicle (trust me, they were watching from somewhere). The crisp autumn air was invigorating as I walked to the photo blind with a load of heavy gear… without sweating. As the sun climbed, I … Continue reading on the Lower Rio Grande, November<\/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-7750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7750","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=7750"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7766,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7750\/revisions\/7766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryditto.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}