Looks from Louisiana

Last week I had a chance to pull together a great trip out of a combination of birding and photography, work, and meeting with friends from all over the country for a fantasy football draft.   I had three trips out into various habitats in the early part of the week, and then followed it up with some fun in New Orleans when my friends arrived last weekend.   This post contains a few of my favorite captures from the trip.   Above, a White Ibis from my first day trip to the South Farm section of the Sherburne WMA just west of Baton Rouge.

Next a flight shot of a Black-necked Stilt from the same morning.   My arrival flight was planned for an overnight Friday evening, which would lead directly to an early start Saturday.   But as they say, "the best laid plans of mice and men..." and that flight was canceled.    I actually left at ten a.m. on Saturday, and finally caught up with my bags at the hotel just after midnight on Sunday morning.    The drive up to Sherburne and the great birding I experienced were just what I needed to make me forget the travel headaches and immerse myself in all the wildlife that habitat had to offer.

A few days later I took another morning trip, and headed down to Grand Isle for sunrise.   More dedicated shots to come from that, but for the moment, a Green Heron perched to give me a sidelong glance while preening.

The second of two lifers from the trip included in this post, a Clapper Rail.   The other, the White Ibis at the top of this post was the first of nine I added on the trip.

To close out this first of the trip posts, a Willet who was posing as I exited the Grand Isle State Park on my way back to New Orleans.   I really enjoyed my opportunities to get out of the city on this visit to Louisiana.   Granted, late August is far from ideal, but if you are willing to wake really early, and accept that by 9:30 or 10:00 am it will be time to head anywhere indoors, then this is a place where incredible experiences abound.

Aside for traveling birders.  
          I find that one of the great parts of any kind of travel is the advance planning that goes into finding activities that will make a vacation memorable.    For this trip an incredibly helpful site was See Jane Bird's site.   She has a Birding Around Baton Rouge link that had great information on a number of locations in the area, including habitat, likely species, and access details.   There were others as well, but that one knocked it out of the park for a site created by an individual.   Nice work Jane!

More to come....stay tuned!

2011 Count:  214
Lifetime: 286

Florida Birding; May 5th, Part 3

Sanderlings and Willet.


Have at it! I am sure that in this and upcoming posts there will be opportunities to review, critique, and or correct my identification & photography skills. Please feel free to point out any misses on my part, along with reasons why. That way I can learn along with anyone in the audience who cares to get to know their shorebirds a bit better.

So without further ado, Ruddy Turnstone.


Sanderling.


All three species.


One more time, Sanderlings and Willet.


Corrections keep pushing my numbers up....

2011 Count: 160
Lifetime: 269

Greetings from Pensacola Beach

It's been too long since I have spent time at a beach. The sound of waves crashing outside my room, sky meeting water in the distance, great food, sugary sand between my toes, not much could be better. Then there are the birds.

They have been great! My only knock on the whole trip has been the low signal for my hotel wireless connection, so posting and updating lists has been more miss than hit, but I am filling up memory cards with pictures and should have plenty to post next week.

All my best to friends, family, and readers alike - have fun out there.

Birds of Wyoming's Hutton Lakes NWR

I had three great field trips while birding at the Colorado Field Ornithologists convention last weekend. All three had different feels to them and exposed me to three different habitat types on the trip. The first was the Red Feather Lakes trip, which ended up being a good tour of the foothills habitat, roughly covering the forest range from plains up to treeline. The second trip was to the Phantom Canyon TNC property, which was beautiful, but didn't lend itself well to photography. My final trip was actually designed to be a photographer's trip. Just over a dozen of us loaded up our dSLRs and Digi-scoping rigs, and headed north for Wyoming to see what the gale forced winds would blow in. We weren't disappointed, I shot these Wilson's Phalarope, firsts for 2010, from my vehicle before even reaching the NWR.


A trip of birding photographers is the best, everyone understands that shooting through the car and past a passenger's head is perfectly acceptable when the bird is on the other side of the road. The favor was returned back and forth multiple times. My next life bird, also seen before we had reached the NWR proper, was a McCown's Longspur, this time posing on my side of the vehicle.

Our first stop inside the refuge was behind the brush where we had all staked out the Marsh Wrens. As we enjoyed our sheltered spot we were also treated to occasional flyovers, such as this Forster's Tern.

We weren't the only ones seeking shelter. As we drove between two lakes we had a nice look at a Willet, which had abandoned the water for the relative calm of some scrub brush.

We also saw it's evil twin, the less well known 'horned willet'. Right, same bird, but the wind did lend itself to lame jokes.

The birds were all doing their best to cope with the strong winds, but some species are just designed to thrive in such conditions. The Northern Harrier, a species that normally glides effortlessly over fields and marshlands anyway, was able to fully extend and use every gust to scrutinize the flooded cattail beds.

We humans, on the other hand, were not so well adapted. We gathered our tied down hats and wind battered senses, and headed south for the border and calmer air to enjoy our lunch. One more impromptu stop awaited, and one more life bird for myself, but that will show up in a final post.

Photography, like birding, is one of those hobbies that lends itself to the quiet contemplation of nature. I find that through scheduling and the opportunistic style of most of my birding that I am generally alone when I pursue both activities. So, it is refreshing to get out with a bunch of folks who enjoy combining the two as much as I do. As great as group birding is, it can often be detrimental to those of us who are always looking for the next good shot. Birding courtesy dictates that a photographer allow the group to get good bins on the bird before pointing a long lens at the target and firing away. It was rewarding to be with others who were also seeking the shot as a goal. If you know other bird photographers in your area you may want to set up a designated bird/photo trip of your own. I am not going to say that this one took me from being an average photographer to an expert, but I definitely came away with some new insights and techniques to try.