Catching Up & Housekeeping...

The quantity of blog entries and blind reviews have not been quite what I would have hoped for during the last month. Work obligations have created a dearth of free time to put in the work that I would like to put in. And honestly, if I have a choice between doing a blog entry or walking around with a monopod-mounted camera in my hand, I'm going to choose for the option behind curtain #2. Hence I've managed to keep up with the time-sensitive reports (blind reports) but have put off finishing a couple of reviews until I had the time to do them right.

The normal progression of things is 2 blog entries a week. One dealing with the latest blind report (depending on where I go) and a second that reviews a picture taking location w/blinds. This weekend I've been quite a bit more active, but 2 is the weekly goal.

In the very near future I have a review of the Petersen Ranch to complete from my visit in late April (yes... I'm that far behind) and then the 4th blind from South Llano River State Park. Additionally I need to go back and add links to images of the birds that I have mentioned throughout the blog over the last couple of months. Over the next week or so I'm hoping some much needed time off (8 hours of compensation time and a long holiday weekend) will allow me to finish what needs to be finished. Keep your fingers crossed.

Also this weekend I added two new blinds on the Google Map of Photo Blinds.

Image: House Sparrow (Female), San Angelo S.P., (c) 2008 Jim Miller

Initial Description - South Llano River S.P. Blind #3

I had the good fortune to visit South Llano River State park on April 17th and followed-up with a 2nd visit on May 8th. As was the case the first time, park staff & volunteers were very friendly.

This is the 3rd of 4 entries on this park to go with the 4 blinds that are in the park.

Location: South Llano River State Park is located about 5 miles south of the city of Junction off of US Route 377. It is approximately 120 miles west of San Antonio or 295 miles southwest of Dallas. Inside the park, Blind #3 is located at the south end of the camping area, adjacent to the walk-in primitive camping spaces.

Setup: Blind #3 is much like the first two, but with some significant differences. Of most note on the similar side to photographers is that there was no chair at the one glassless spot in the blind.

Perches/Attractants: The word for this blind is distance. As in, there's huge distances from where the birds are going to perch and where the people sit. There is a water feature and feeders, but this is long lens territory.

AM/PM: This is probably better as an afternoon blind. As logistics would have it, I again was there in the morning and got some workable shots. It may have even been more workable as the morning went on, but I only spent about an hour at this blind because I was in search of the elusive blind #4. But late afternoon would probably be better.

Species: Most of the species I saw here were sparrows, Northern Cardinals, and White-Winged Doves. Again, a full species list for the park and surrounding area can be found here.

Lens Requirements: 300mm was not long enough for this blind. At least a 400mm is my recommendation and it is likely that a teleconverter will still be required.

Other Photo Ops: As noted, the Walter Buck Wildlife Management Area adjoins the park. In all reality, it dwarfs the park in terms of overall size. Miles of hiking trails are available in the WMA. Three additional blinds are located in the park as well as a number of hiking trails near the South Llano River and Buck lake. Outside of the park there are additional wildlife viewing possibilities are listed on the Great Texas Trails - Llano Loop page from TWPD.

Image: Lark Sparrow, South Llano River S.P., (c) 2008 Jim Miller

Contact Information

It was rightfully pointed out that I did not have any contact information on the blog. Point taken and corrected.

To contact me directly without leaving a comment for others to read on the blog can be done by sending me an e-mail at blindblog@jmillerphoto.com. Please, only e-mail about photo blinds to this address. At best I will be checking it once a day.

Image: Curve-billed Thrasher, San Angelo S.P., (c) 2008 Jim Miller

June 28th Report - San Angelo S.P.

It was a great morning in the blind. Sunlight was pleasing, bird population was good, and image opportunities were plentiful.

I got into the blind at/about 8:05 AM. Temps were all ready starting to touch 80, but it never really got oppressively hot. Left at 11 AM as two other photographers from Midland were just getting started.

The laundry list:

Species List
Black-Chinned Hummingbird (Male & Female)
Black Crested Tufted Titmouse
Bronzed Cowbird
Brown-Headed Cowbird
Bullock's Oriole (Female)
Curve-Billed Thrasher
Golden-Fronted Woodpecker (Male & Female)
Greater Roadrunner
House Finch
House Sparrow
Ladder-Backed Woodpecker (Male)
Mourning Dove
Northern Bobwhite Quail (Mating Pair)
Northern Cardinal (Male, Female, & Juvenile)
Northern Mockingbird
Red-Winged Blackbird
Western Kingbird
White-Winged Dove

It was very nice to see the Ladder-Backed Woodpecker back in the blind. He made the wide tour of the outer trees but did not come in on the inside perches. Focus this time was much better than before and was lighting conditions. I expect that will be an 8x10 in the very near future.

The Roadrunner stayed outside of the blind to the right of D tree. He came in close enough to get an identifiable shot, but I'm not completely happy with it. I'm happy enough to post it, though ;)

No painted buntings this morning. Not sure what has changed since my last visit (and no additional bird reports on the clipboard in the blind). Hope they're back next time.

Many, many birds around. This was the first time with my 30D where I filled two cards inside of the blind and was well into the third card when I decided that enough was enough and the light was starting to leave me. Just overall an outstanding morning.

Image: Greater Roadrunner, San Angelo S.P., (c) 2008 Jim Miller

June 22nd Report - San Angelo S.P.

This was easily as good of a photo session as I've had in weeks. Three solid hours in the blind gave me over 485 images exposed. Great way to cap off a good week in the park.

I spent about 3 hours at the park this week with the Day Camp they were having at the park. There were about 30 or so pre-teens that were taking part and I volunteered a couple of weeks back to teach them a little something about birding and bird photography. It was surprisingly a very enjoyable morning with 28 very well behaved young people. As for the other two, well, we can't all be perfect.

Beyond sharing this addiction, it was also a good opportunity to do some scouting. In between my last visit and my visit mid-week there has been a population explosion of Cottontail Rabbits. We saw probably 4 or 5 with the campers mid-week, and I saw another 2 or 3 walking up the trail to the blind this morning. They're still not in the mood for being photo subjects, but give them so time and they'll come around. In the blind this morning the species spread was very good and the numbers were, well, different. First the laundry list...

Species List
Bewick's Wren
Black-Chinned Hummingbird (Male & Female)
Black Crested Titmouse
Boat-Tailed Grackle
Bronzed Cowbird
Brown-Headed Cowbird
Bullock's Oriole (Male & Female)
Curve-Billed Thrasher
Golden-Fronted Woodpecker (Male & Female)
House Finch
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
Northern Bobwhite Quail (Mating Pair)
Northern Cardinal (Male, Female, & Juvenile)
Northern Mockingbird
Painted Bunting (Male & Female)
Pyrrhuloxia (Female)
Red-Winged Blackbird
Scissortailed Flycatcher
Western Kingbird
White-Winged Dove

Some other notes... I saw a couple of Jackrabbits on the way into the park. Pipevine Swallowtail, Variegated Frittalry, and Hackberry Emperor butterflies seen inside the blind and some variety of sulphur butterfly (need to do some more research).

No repeat of the Ladder-backed Woodpecker this morning, but the Golden-Fronted Woodpeckers were very active. On the full-size of the attached image, he has a sunflower seed in his bill and you can see his tongue plainly in between his upper and lower beak. He would take those seeds, put them into a previously drilled hole, and then beat the heck out the shell. Very cool behavior opportunity. Red-Winged Blackbird and House Sparrow numbers were way down (though I'm being invaded by House Sparrows at my house just 5 minutes away). Bronzed Cowbird, Titmouse, and White-Winged Dove numbers were up. Also saw my first juvenile Northern Cardinal of the season.

Wish all trips to the blind could be as productive as this one.

Image: Golden-Fronted Woodpecker (Male), San Angelo S.P., (c) 2008 Jim Miller

June 15th Report: San Angelo S.P.

It's been a busy month this week so I'm not going to have my standard level of verbosity about my day in the blind.

Warm & sunny with no clouds to diffuse any of the light. Shadows were harsh and sun was harsh. Really not a good day of shooting.

I won't do the laundry list because there weren't a lot of changes. No titmice, but a good and multiple showings by the Painted Buntings. Bunch of Bullock's Orioles as well, though they're still not willing to pose real pretty.

The highlight of the morning was a pair of list birds for my camera. Bird 1 was a Yellow-Billed Cuckoo that I saw on the walk up. The image was obscured by branches so I will have to wait for a better opportunity to make a wall shot.

Bird #2 was a Ladder-Backed Woodpecker. It was in the blind and it was an okay shot. Lighting was tough and the focus was a hair off. Fill-flash would have helped. But it's not a bad shot.

Image: Ladder-backed Woodpecker (Male), San Angelo S.P., (c) 2008 Jim Miller

June 8th Report: San Angelo S.P.

I am dragging tonight. It's been a very long weekend at SASP. I spent 7 hours on Saturday at the park working with Friends of SASP talking about birding, bird photography, and the bird blind. Awesome time, but very windy and very busy. My personal thanks go out to Family Power Sports of San Angelo for providing a Kawasaki Mule to help ferry folks from the pavilion where most of the events were going on to the bird blind. It made a huge difference.

Today I spent another 4 hours in the park at the bird blind and a quick drive around the park to include a brief visit to the Prairie Dog Town. I had not been out there before and honestly it is far from being the highlight of the park. I think with some work it could be a magnificent draw to the park, but in it's current form there's not much to be seen there.

I did get a couple of good doggie shots from my 4-wheeled blind and I'm sure that those will show up shortly. I will know to go earlier in the morning next time to get better angles, or possibly later in the afternoon, though those will be done also within the confines of the 4-wheeled blind because late afternoon is also a great time for snakes. If I'm making images of snakes, I prefer to do them with a 600mm lens with a 2x teleconverter and with an RF shutter release.

As for the blind report. Got in early, left later than normal. Weather was pretty miserable. Windy and very cloudy up until close to noon. Temperature was reasonable enough (translated: cool) but the lighting was a bear to work with. But there was a good variety of species available there making for a reasonably mediocre morning. The laundry list...

Species List
Bewick's Wren
Black-Chinned Hummingbird
Boat-Tailed Grackle
Bronzed Cowbird
Brown-Headed Cowbird
Bullock's Oriole (Male)
Cactus Wren
Curve-Billed Thrasher
Golden-Fronted Woodpecker (Female)
House Finch
House Sparrow
Mourning Dove
Northern Bobwhite Quail (Mating Pair)
Northern Cardinal (Male only)
Northern Mockingbird
Painted Bunting (Male & Female)
Red-Winged Blackbird
White-Winged Dove

The trend of White-Winged Doves outnumbering Mourning Doves continued, with the Mourning Doves not showing up until around 11 am.

Boat-Tailed Grackle is a regular resident elsewhere in the park, but I'd not seen that bird in the bird blind before. Northern Mockingbirds spent a good deal of time posing as well--a reasonably usual behavior as the spring turns into summer and there are a few more insects within the confines of the blind..

The male Northern Cardinals were being exceptionally photo tolerant today with about 50 frames shot in 3 opportunities.

Good day in the blind, but I'm drained...

Image: House Sparrow (Male), San Angelo S.P., (c) 2008 Jim Miller

June 1st Report: San Angelo S.P.

Following up from the last report from the blind. I did get the chance last weekend to walk some of the trails in San Angelo S.P. after having last visit cut short. I walked what is labeled as the "Shady Trail" on it's trail head on the North Shore entrance to the park. I saw a few birds, to include a variety of Northern Cardinals, Golden-Fronted Woodpeckers, and a Summer Tanager, but found the photographic lines to be wanting. I did have great luck on the trail with hairstreak butterflies and a wide variety of species of damselfly. On the downside, I left my macro extension tube at home so it means that I will need to walk the trail again someday. I also had a distant encounter with a Water Moccasin, so I am not likely to do that one by myself anytime soon, either...

It was a good quick morning in the blind. My off-duty supervisor put a last-minute event on my schedule around 10AM so I didn't get to take full advantage of the morning.

Birds were most active after about 9AM. Light was decent, but not great. As is the usual, the light was better before the birds arrived and not so great after they got there. An earlier opening of the park wouldn't have helped much. I must spend some time explaining this to the birds so they can get their watches synchronized to the best photographic light ;)

The Laundry List:

Species List
Black Chinned Hummingbird
Bronzed Cowbird
Brown-Headed Cowbird
Bullock's Oriole (F)
Cactus Wren
Curve-billed Thrasher
Doves (Mourning & White-Winged)
Golden-Fronted Woodpecker (Male & Female)
House Finch
House Sparrow
Painted Bunting (Male & Female)
Northern Bobwhite Quail (Mating Pair)
Pyrrhuloxia (Male)
Red-Winged Blackbird (Exclusively Male)
Wild Turkey (Hen)
Western Kingbird

On the way to and from the blind I spotted Scissortailed Flycatchers and a second bird that I'm going to need some guidance on from my birder friends.

No Black-Tufted Titmouse this morning. This may be the first time in months that I've not seen at least one. No Northern Cardinal this morning either. We (the other photographer in the blind and I) heard them, but they did not make an appearance. Mourning dove numbers are dropping. On the way to the park I saw a fledgling White-Winged Dove repeatedly being unsuccessful at it's first flight.

It was good to see the Pyrrhuloxia this morning, though it would have been even better if he had been nice enough to show himself in a position where I could take a good picture of him...

The word for the day was bravery. I'm counting the Wild Turkey as being seen in the blind because I still had one foot in the blind when I spotted her walking by the human entrance to the blind. She did not seem to be all that concerned that I was there and calmly walked around the fence for some seed and some water. Certainly not the brightest Wild Turkey that I've seen in my time in the blind.

The Western Kingbird was a new one for me within the confines of the blind. It spent an extensive amount of time perched and came back a couple of times. The female Bullock's Oriole was also a first for me--so much so that I had to refer to the book at home before I could make a positive ID.

Curve-billed Thrashers were in relative abundance today.

The Bobwhite Quail were considerably braver as well, getting all the way up to the wall of the blind.

Butterfly numbers are also still coming up. I saw a number of hairstreaks as I walked up the trail and the numbers of Variegated Fritillaries and Pipevine Swallowtails seemed significantly higher.

Images:
Blue-Ringed Dancer Damselfly [Argia sedula], San Angelo S.P., (c) 2008 Jim Miller
Western Kingbird, San Angelo S.P., (c) 2008 Jim Miller