Trying to Find The Time To Do What I Like...

© jmillerphoto.com - Rufous-crowned Sparrow

It has been a long time, my friends.  Just when I thought I was finding time to do the things I like to do I found that the time was slipping through my fingers.  I hate when that happens.

So with this blog post I'm trying to once again get into the swing of things when it comes to shooting from blinds.

During this holiday weekend I have once again found time to update the Texas Bird Blind Map (link on the right).  I am also doing a property-by-property spreadsheet which I hope to share here soon.  In addition I hope to have a calendar setup with the various workshops that are going to be taking place through next summer at the various private ranches throughout the Lower Rio Grande Valley and the Texas Hill Country.  More to follow on those, soon.

My hope, which given my past record is likely only a hope, is to do weekly updates up through the summer.  These may include recent trips, blinds I've visited at another time, or the mechanics of establishing a backyard blind.

Keep me honest.  Let me know what you'd like to see and I'll add it to the list.

Happy Shooting!

About the Image:
This shot was made at the Transition Ranch in late May 2016.  He had just left the pond and on the full size image you can see water droplets on his feathers.

South Llano River SP - 12/6/2014

© jmillerphoto.com - Inca Dove

My first three photo shoots after retiring were all made at South Llano River State Park (SLRSP) near Junction, Texas.

For those of you who have been reading this or my other blog for an extended period of time, you will know that I have nearly unending praise for SLRSP.  This is a great place to observe birds and make images.  Wonderful staff.  Outstanding volunteers.  Good blinds.  Great place to get back into the swing of things.

Some say that getting back into any of a number of activities is like getting onto a bicycle again after having not ridden one in a long time.  If that is the case, I sure skinned my knees and stubbed my toes a couple of times on this particular adventure.

My images.  Well, mediocre at best.  There was not a lot of light to play with as the promised light overcast was thicker than I would have liked.  It was also chillier than I had prepared for.  My fault, of course.  I failed to follow the 5 P's (Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance).

I shot in the Acorn Blind (AKA Blind #4 or the blind nearest Buck Lake) from 9:50AM to 12:30 PM.  The species that I was able to count/identify included:  Black-crested Titmouse, Northern Cardinal, Hermit Thrush, Chipping Sparrow, Inca Dove (pictured above), House Finch, Carolina Chickadee, and American Goldfinch.

My best images were of Northern Cardinals, Inca Doves, and Chipping Sparrows.  I have not yet "harvested" this trip for all of the keepers.  That tends to still be a problem for me.  I did turn a lady Cardinal into a Flickr image as well as a 1920x1080 wallpaper image for my own personal edification.

But again, best is pushing the limits of sanity.  First shooting in 4 months.  Cold morning.  Well heck, I think I would have been happy if I managed to get the lens cap off and not accidentally apply unneeded exposure compensation.  And I was happy.  It was sure good to get out and make images again.

About the Image:
My 3 most favorite images from this visit were all Northern Cardinals, but I think y'all have seen enough of those from me.  So I went instead with the Inca Dove (Columbina inca) perched on one of the perches.

Taking Things Off Pause

© jmillerphoto.com - Northern Cardinal

So last summer I put this blog on pause.  I had retired from the Air Force.  I was starting a new job.  I knew I was going to be busy.  Well, I thought I knew how busy I was going to be.

Eight months down the road I now know that I made a really good decision to put this blog on pause.  Wow... Civilian life is different.  As busy as military life, but just in a different way.

Four months of that eight I didn't even pick up the camera to go shooting.  Probably a mistake in retrospect, but things needed to be done around the new home.  My first shoot was back in a blind at South Llano River SP in early December.  It took another 6 weeks before I shot again.  All in total I have shot 7 times since retiring, and all 7 times have been in bird blinds of one sort or another.

I think I have enough sea legs in the civilian world to start blogging here again.

My return will be going in 4 different directions.

First is catching up with what the private ranches in the Texas Hill Country and South Texas are doing.  I will be working hard to catch up again on my bird blind map and trying to get my bearings again.

Second, I will be documenting my blind trips from this year.  Good for historical data going down the road--you'd be surprised if I told you how many searches hit this site looking for particular shooting locations.  Date plus location will be a good reference point.

Third, I will likely be building a new website to catalog some of this information.  The blog is great, but having a resource that is searchable will likely be better for all who are looking.

And last, but certainly not least, I will be chronicling the planning and building of my own bird blind in my backyard.  With retirement came a change in homes and this home has the space in the "backyard" to put up a permanent blind.

I am aiming for weekly posts.  Fingers crossed...

About the Image:
This is one of the test shots I made out of a temporary pop-up blind in the backyard.  The Northern Cardinal was very cooperative.

The Periodic Update

© jmillerphoto.com - White-winged Dove

As what seems to be the norm, I have been up to my neck in many tasks.  Overbooking is the term I heard the other day that seems most appropriate to my situation.  But here are some updates on what I've been doing in terms of work with blinds, keeping up with the blinds, and so on.

Latest Blind Visits:
I visited Pedernales Falls SP on July 11th.  I did a write up at Jim's Photo Ramblings.   The takeaway for blind shooters:  The perches have been moved too darn close, the suet is being gooped in large quantities, taking away from good clean shots, and less seed is being put down to discourage the doves.  The weather was not ideal the day I went, either, so all in all it wasn't that productive of a day.

I visited Stephen F. Austin SP on July 13th.  What I had listed on my Bird Blind Map as a possible blind in the park isn't one.  I have removed it.

I visited South Llano River SP on July 20th and July 26th.  On July 20th it was in the afternoon and I almost exclusively stayed in the Acorn Blind.  I had some hide and seek sun for most of my visit, which turned in some nice shots. On July 26th I visited in the morning, making images in the Acorn and Agarita blinds, along with a quick visit to Buck Lake.  Nice images of a lot of birds, though the light was not as pleasant as it was on the 20th.  I have not done a blog post on either of those visits.  I need to get caught up on those.

I also visited Abilene SP on July 26th to see how their blind was, but it was as I remembered it:  Decent for bird watching, lousy for bird photography.  It remains not on the bird blind map.

The Map (and the Spreadsheet)
The map was in desperate need of updating.  I think the last major update was done in 2011, but I've done small updates here and there over the last couple of years.  It is not a trivial task to track down all of the pertinent information, so it is taking some time.

To this point I've completed verification on all of the sites in the Lower Rio Grande Valley and the lone confirmed spot near Laredo.  I know that there are more in the Laredo area, but the information has been difficult to find and quite frankly, the Rocking R6 is so good that I haven't had much incentive to look further.

I had to remove the Cozad Ranch as it appears to have shut down, though if somebody can provide additional information to confirm or deny it would be great.  I have marked it as closed as of now.

The Kingsville and Corpus Christi areas are next before I get into the Hill Country and Hill Country River Regions.  There is a previously unknown to me ranch out towards High Island/Anahuac NWR area called the Lagow Ranch which has a blind.  I asked for more information, but didn't get it in time to do this blog entry.  It will go on the back burner until the next push to do updates.

As always, if you have information on a blind I don't have listed, please feel free to send me an e-mail and I will work towards adding it.

In addition to doing the updates to the map, I've also built a Google Docs spreadsheet to hopefully make future updates easier as well as to provide the data in a different format for folks who like text better than clicking on a map.  I've added the spreadsheet to the resources on the right column.

Another Pause
As you might have seen over at Jim's Photo Ramblings, I am in a job and life transition.  I retired from the Air Force after 22 1/2 years of service and am will be starting my first post-military job shortly.  Until I get my arms wrapped around what civilian life is like and how much time my civilian job is going to take up, I'm pausing all of my activities.

As I pick things up, this blog and my Photo Ramblings blog will be the first to fire up again.  I have some big plans for the blog to include building a website to contain the reviews of the blinds I've visited, maps (as appropriate), and other data to make things more useful.  It may be the first of my overbookings, but it will be a fun overbook.

Been Away For A While...

Life has gotten the best of me.  Well, that and concentrating on other projects.  I have been having a heck of a time just keeping up with my Jim's Assorted, Usually Photographic, Ramblings blog where I've been doing most of my work.  I concentrated on dragonflies last year and spent a lot less time in blinds.

That's not to say that I haven't spent any time in blinds.  Through fall of last year and into the spring of this year I have spent a lot of time in blinds and let me give you some quick hits on things I've done and observations I've had.

Northern Cardinal - Pedernales Falls State Park	Pedernales Falls SP:  The new blind was productive again this through the fall and winter.  I haven't been back since February, but things were very good there.  They have widened the photographer's window significantly and it is very usable and the images are much more clear than shooting through the window.  The only problem with the window is that it is at an awkward unless you're about 5' 6" tall.
Inca Dove - South Llano River State Park	South Llano River SP:  I have made a couple of trips into their over the winter and very early spring.  Blinds are as good as always.  Made some really nice images.  Shot a ton of frames.  It was my first over 1,000 day since my return to Texas.
Black-crested Titmouse - Warbler Woods Bird Sanctuary	Warbler Woods Bird Sanctuary:  I have always hesitated to put this location on the list because the blinds on the property are not blind like you would find at the State Parks or a private ranch.  But Susan has added an additional blind that is awful close to a traditional blind and I had some good luck at it and a couple of the non-traditional blinds.  I need to make a return trip soon.
Crested Caracara - Rocking R6 Ranch	Rocking R6 Ranch:  Made my first visit to this private ranch last weekend.  I had an awesome time.  1 1/2 days of shooting to include some great opportunities at the blind set up for raptors.  I owe a full report which I hope to do soon.  For now you can check out my post over at Jim's Assorted Ramblings.

Some tasks that are on my agenda when I can find some time is to do a review of the Texas Photo Blind Google Map to ensure the information remains accurate.  I have at least one additional site I need to add to the map and undoubtedly there has been one or two that have dropped off.

This is about the time of year where the blinds start to calm down and I end up shooting dragons and damsels.  But I promise I'm going to do a better job of keeping up and at least doing weekly posts here.

Workshop Update #1

Consider change #1 to be more of a change of venue.  I have created the Google Docs spreadsheet for ease of viewing.  It was all getting very crowded very quickly whereas a spreadsheet takes care of this sort of thing beautifully.  All of the hyperlinks have been removed from this page and there is a complete list of hyperlinks on the Google Doc spreadsheet.

Also of note, Sharron Jay at Block Creek Natural Area reports that there are spaces available for the ICF Pro-Am date.  Contact her for more information.


April
ICF Pro-Am (Mike Sloat) - River Ranch - April 12-16
David Cardinal - Block Creek Natural Area - April 18-23
Christopher Dodds - Best of Texas (LRGV) - April 23-27
David Cardinal - Rio Grande Valley Ranches - April 24-30
Kathy Adams Clark - Block Creek Natural Area - April 27-29
ICF Pro-Am (Dale Franz) - Cotulla Ranches - April 27-30
ICF Pro-Am (Butch Ramirez) - Rocking R6 Ranch - April 27-30

May
Andy Long - Lower Rio Grande Ranches - May 2-8
ICF Pro-Am (Dale Franz) - Block Creek Natural Area - May 3-7
ICF Pro-Am (Mike Sloat) - Los Madrones - May 3-7
Larry Ditto - Block Creek Natural Area - May 11-13
ICF Pro-Am (Jeff Parker) - Tacubaya Ranch - May 17-21
ICF Pro-Am (John Pickles) - Dos Venadas - May 17-21
Sean Fitzgerald - Block Creek Natural Area - May 18-20
ICF Pro-AM (Larry Ditto) - El Potrero Ranch - May 31-June 4

June
Kathy Adams Clark - Rio Grande Valley Ranch Shoot - June 3-5
Kathy Adams Clark - Block Creek Natural Area - June 22-24

Spring Workshop Updates

This is the first swing at assembling a list of workshops that are going on this spring. The deeper I've gotten into trying to do this, the more I realize why I've never tried this before (or I've tried and I've repressed the memory of it...).

Updates are coming soon.  If you know of other workshops going on, please feel free to share.

Of note is Block Creek Natural Area that has 6(!) workshops or tours going through the property this spring.  I'd say that's a sign that they have a quality property and they treat photographers well.  At least three of those are repeat pro photographers.

April
ICF Pro-Am (Mike Sloat) - River Ranch - April 12-16
David Cardinal - Block Creek Natural Area - April 18-23
David Cardinal - Rio Grande Valley Ranches - April 24-30
Kathy Adams Clark - Block Creek Natural Area - April 27-29
ICF Pro-Am (Dale Franz) - Cotulla Ranches - April 27-30
ICF Pro-Am (Butch Ramirez) - Rocking R6 Ranch - April 27-30

May
Andy Long - Lower Rio Grande Ranches - May 2-8
ICF Pro-Am (Dale Franz) - Block Creek Natural Area - May 3-7
ICF Pro-Am (Mike Sloat) - Los Madrones - May 3-7
Larry Ditto - Block Creek Natural Area - May 11-13
ICF Pro-Am (Jeff Parker) - Tacubaya Ranch - May 17-21
ICF Pro-Am (John Pickles) - Dos Venadas - May 17-21
Sean Fitzgerald - Block Creek Natural Area - May 18-20
ICF Pro-AM (Larry Ditto) - El Potrero Ranch - May 31-June 4

June
Kathy Adams Clark - Block Creek Natural Area - June 22-24

Again, more updates coming as I find more time to flesh things out.  Have patience--I'm but one guy with a bum foot ;)

Blind Map Updated

I have updated the Texas Bird Blind Google Map.  I added both the Kreutzberg Canyon Natural Area and Blanco SP information.

Still hunting down a couple more.  As I find the information, I will pass it along.

Initial Blind Report: Kreutzberg Canyon Natural Area

I have neglected this blog.  I do apologize.  My Assorted Ramblings blog and work has been taking up the lion's share of my time and I have not spread the news about this new set of blinds.

There are three new blinds to report to you.  Well, new to me.  But also reasonably new to everyone, having been up I believe just a little more than a year.

Kreutzberg Canyon Natural Area is a smallish county park in Kendall County, about 20 minutes or so outside of Boerne, Texas.  It sits on the Guadalupe River, though admittedly I've not been down to the river yet in the two visits that I've made.

The entry price is right--Free.  Though at the same time I strongly urge you that if you use the blinds that you drop a couple of dollars in the donation container to help pay for feed and future upkeep.  If we're using it, we should be paying for it.  I have used the concept that I'd pay $5 to get into Pedernales Falls SP so I try to drop that in the bucket.

There are three blinds on the property.  I will do more detailed write-ups on them later because there is a significant difference in what you will see from blind to blind.  But for now I will paint with a roller and later I'll get out the small brush to work the trim.  Much of this preview is going to be comparing this blind to others on public lands.

The three blinds are labeled the Cuckoo, Chaparral, and Cardinal.  The Cardinal blind is closest to the River.  The Cuckoo is closest to the office, though you can see the Chaparral from the Cuckoo so there's not a lot of a distance between the two. All are more or less the size of medium to large sized storage sheds.  The biggest is probably as big as the Acorn blind at South Llano River SP.  The smallest on par with the blind at San Angelo SP. 

All three blinds have comfortable seating, but they are fixed in place.  Seats similar to the Acorn blind at South Llano River SP minus the padding/spring.  I found this very conducive to shooting.

The enclosure area for the blinds are much more intimate than any I've seen.  The back wall of the deepest enclosure area is closer than the back wall at SLRSP's Acorn blind.  The downside on a couple of them is that the metal fencing material that they used 

There are wooden doors that open to give photographers non-glass openings--very much like the one at Lost Maples SNA but bigger.  The downside is that there is no place to sit (bring your own folding stool or be ready to sit on your knees) and it is awkward for a tripod.

Like PFSP, you can certainly shoot through the glass and I was pretty successful in doing so.  Refraction effects become noticeable if you're more than about 30º off of shooting straight through so pick your perch carefully and hope for good luck.

There are tiny water features at 2 of the 3 blinds.  There was no water feature visible at the Cuckoo blind, though there was rainwater collection going on so I don't know if there is a water feature but it is broken or if one does not exist in that blind.

The other two blinds utilize rainwater collection from the roofs.  I am assuming this water is reused for the water features.  This is outstanding planning and very eco-friendly.

The park is located at 143 Mark Twain Drive.  My 4 year old GPS maps located this property on the first try, so it isn't tough to get to.  It is about 25 minutes from Interstate 10 or about 20 minutes from the heart of Boerne.

Again, as I catch up I will give a little more detail to the three blinds as each has their own character and their most likely suspects when it comes to bird species.

Images
Bewick's Wren, Kreutzberg Canyon Natural Area, © 2012 jmillerphoto.com
Northern Cardinal (Male), Kreutzberg Canyon Natural Area, © 2012 jmillerphoto.com

January 7th Report: Pedernales Falls SP

This one has been a long time in coming.  Sorry.  Been busy.  Mostly with trying to keyword all of the images from this visit and figure out which ones are going to turn into prints.  I wish I had that problem all the time...

It was an outstanding morning of shooting in the blind.  As I mentioned over at Jim's Assorted, Usually Photographic, Ramblings, I left home late and thought I had missed the best of the opportunities.  Over 660 images (and one full card later) I can assure you that I did not.

I won't go through the whole laundry list of birds I saw that day.  If you want to see it, I'll gently nudge you over to my eBird list for the day.  Some of the highlights...

- Seeing a pair of male Ladder-backed Woodpeckers in the blind area at the same time for a while.  To have two woodpeckers of the same species, especially males, co-exist for any length of time was remarkable.

- Seeing my first Eastern Towhee.  I've seen more than my share of Spotted Towhees and there isn't a huge difference between the species (just really white spots on the wings), but to confirm that they are at the park was cool.

- The massive Northern Cardinal invasion.  Wow... if you were in the blind and didn't make a good image of a Northern Cardinal, it was probably time to get on Craigslist and sell your camera equipment.  I don't think that it is an exaggeration that I have 5-6 very printable images of different poses from the day.  It was a banner day for my dipped in red friends.

It was not all wine and roses.  The light did get very harsh towards the end.  There was no evidence that the birds had been fed any seed that day, yet there was plenty of spent seeds on the ground.  It wouldn't hurt to have the area cleaned up a bit.  There was also no obvious evidence of paste/suet/peanut butter type food being out, either.

Regardless, it was an incredible day of shooting and I just wish I'd gotten there two hours earlier and had brought one more memory card.

Image:
Rufous-crowned Sparrow, Pedernales Falls SP, © 2012 jmillerphoto.com

Another Truncated Update

Blog entries are coming soon.  I've been busy with photo shoots here and there and I just haven't caught up here.  I spent one day last weekend at Pedernales Falls SP and I have a blog entry coming about that hopefully in the next day or two.  And then yesterday (Sunday) I visited three different blinds in two different state parks.  Figure on at least two additional blog entries from those visits and perhaps a third, just depending on how things shake out.

A quick bit of good news.  San Angelo SP has replaced the windows in the bird blind there.  When I visited yesterday there was a solid bit of food present and the water was flowing again the water feature.  This is very good news indeed and I'm hoping to make it back up in the next month or so to see if things continue to progress there.

No more news in terms of workshops or other special events at the private blinds.  But as I hear about things I will let you know.

Image:
Field Sparrow, South Llano River SP, ©2012 jmillerphoto.com

News for the New Year

I hope your holidays were good for you and yours and you are plotting out your shooting opportunities in this new year.

I haven't had any time in a blind since my visit to San Angelo State Park.  In fact, the camera sat on the shelf for close to two weeks as the weather was miserable and wet, which is exactly what we needed in Texas.  I will be pulling out my pop-up blind tomorrow as preparation for a visit to San Angelo in a couple of weeks.

I was made aware of a new blind in South Texas.  It is the Rockin' R Ranch, west of Ben Bolt.  A photographer (Jeff Parker) has set up the blinds and the images off of his site are very impressive.  The fee for the day is $125 per day for the blind or $295 for the day for the blind with Jeff working as your guide.  Contact Jeff for more information.

Thanks for making last year really rewarding.  Stay tuned...2012 is going to be outstanding.

December 17th Report - San Angelo State Park Blind

It was a bit of a homecoming for me this weekend.  I was able to make it out to San Angelo State Park this past Saturday to spend a little time in the bird blind out there.

For my long time readers you know that this was my home away from home when I was in San Angelo.  Reports about this blind dominated the early couple of years of this blog because I was in that blind just about every weekend.

This trip was not specifically aimed at going to the park.  Other business took me to San Angelo.  But Saturday morning was free so I took advantage of the opportunity to take a look around and fire off a few frames.

As I mentioned over at Jim's Assorted, Usually Photographic, Ramblings, there have some words of discontent about the blind as of late.  Bob Zeller, a good friend and a photographer I respect a lot, issued some scathing words about the upkeep of the blind a few weeks ago.  Privately I had heard from a couple of other photographers that things were not being kept up to previous standards.

Along with visiting the blind I also helped maintain it for about the last 12-15 months I was in San Angelo.  I didn't do the heavy lifting--others spent far more time than I.  But I knew what it looked like when it was running good as well as the constant irritants that created work and would make the place look bad if not attended to promptly.  And I was worried about some of the things I had heard.

It is really easy to concentrate on the problems the blind may or may not have, so let me start with the photography first.  Weather conditions were perfect for this particular blind.  Light to moderate overcast skies created nature's soft box and diffused the sunlight.  This all but eliminated shadows in the blind area.  But it did mean faster ISO than I normally would shoot with and the resultant noise that comes with it.  I shot ISO 400 almost the entire morning.  Often even at ISO 400 I was at 1/100th or less at f5.6.  Light was challenging even under the ideal circumstances.

Nothing horribly special in terms of species.  I won't do a laundry list like I did back in the day, but if you look this laundry list from December 14th, 2008, add a Spotted Towhee and subtract the Greater Roadrunner, Cactus Wren, Golden-fronted and Ladderbacked Woodpeckers, and Northern Bobwhites you will get my full list from my visit.  It was especially nice to see a Canyon Towhee--I had not seen one since my return to Texas.

Volume of shots was very small as compared with that photo shoot in December 2008.  In 2 hours or so I made 156 images this year.  Three years ago that number was 264 in an 75 minutes.  Part of that may have been the overcast--typically overcast skies do diminish the count a little bit.  Temperatures were moderate (low to mid 40's for most of my time).  I have two or three solid keepers in the bunch.

Upon arrival I could see both good and bad.  The bad for us as photographers is that we are down to just one shooting window left.  A maintenance issue cropped up some time in 2009 that required that the center window be sealed.  Now the left position also is sealed.  Sort of.  The glass in the left window broke once again, and rather than try to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic they instead covered the opening with a sheet of plexiglass.  This was not much of a shock if only because I knew that the Friends of the Park had paid to replace all of the glass in the blind.  This small stop-gap measure is completely understandable, though a barrier to us as photographers for the near term.

Also of concern was the lack of dripping water.  In past years a hose was run to the back to the water feature and allowed to run at the pace of a drip.  The hose is still there, though moved away from where it would do the most good.  But no water was flowing.  There was water in the trough, though and birds were drinking.

And then there was the lack of seed.  That was somewhat normal.  Birds continue to feed overnight.  But with as many feeders as are present it was unusual to see all of the feeders empty and little to no evidence of spent seeds in the flat feeders (terra cotta and trash can lid feeders specifically).  So either they were really, really hungry or it had been a day or two since the volunteers were last out to feed.

However, beyond those things the blind looked pretty good.  The blind area had a more natural appearance to it which I think is better for photography.  The perches were well placed and aside from the leaning black pole that has always leaned one way or another, everything inside the blind seemed to be in good repair.

I discussed my concerns with the park superintendent and I have great confidence that we are on the road to recovery with the blind.  Fingers crossed that it continues on that path.

Images:
Canyon Towhee, San Angelo SP, © 2011 jmillerphoto.com
Northern Mockingbird, San Angelo SP, © 2011 jmillerphoto.com 

Called on Account of Rain

My shooting schedule of late has been severely curtailed by the weather.  And that is a good thing.  Sort of.

We desperately need rain in Texas and Mother Nature has provided a good number of days of rain over the last couple of weeks.  The last time I shot out of a blind was back at Pedernales Falls SP on November 20th.  The last shooting I've done anywhere was at Cook's Slough Nature Park in Uvalde a week later.  And even that was an afternoon shoot that wedged between a pair of storms.

In the big picture I am not complaining at all.  We need every drop we can get.  Good rains now will help everything to grow in the spring which will also benefit everybody and everything.

I am working on two blind-related things.  One is the blind out on the gulf coast that I still haven't been able to make positive contact on.  The other is a follow-up on a set of images I saw out of a relatively new property and I'm trying to get in touch with the photographer who did them.

Also, if all works out this weekend I may even have an update on the blind at San Angelo State Park.

Two New Photo Blind Workshops

Sharron at Block Creek Natural Area has given me a heads-up that Kathy Adams Clark will be offering a photography workshop February 3rd through February 5th. 

Kathy is a great photographer and I have heard nothing but glowing reviews from the presentations she does. It seems like she did a workshop there in the last year or so and I'm glad that she is once again keeping workshops in blinds on her schedule.

My understanding is that details are still to be worked out, but you can visit Kathy's website for more details as well as contact info to get more specific details

While finding more info about the February workshop, Kathy is also doing a workshop in blinds in the Rio Grande Valley June 3rd through June 5th.  Again, visit her website for more details/contact information.

Image:
Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), Pedernales Falls SP, © Jim Miller, jmillerphoto.com

All is calm...

Not much photography right now for me. I have a huge professional certification test coming up in about a week and then I get really deep into the preparation for the holidays. I'm hoping if all works out well to be up in San Angelo before Christmas to partake in a family tradition and maybe get an on-scene look at the bird blind at San Angelo State Park to see if progress has been made towards rehabilitating it.

I stumbled upon an blog posting by Russell Graves, a true steward of the land and working nature photographer here in Texas.  Mr. Graves does not blog a lot, but when he does there often nuggets of pure photographic gold contained within them.

The blog post I stumbled upon spoke to the unglamorous nature of what it takes to make images when you are on assignment for a magazine.  Words of wisdom for those considering moving their hobby and their passion into the day-to-day job.

I also have a lead on yet another blind, this time more towards the gulf coast.  That may be the next post to the blog.

New Private Blind Property - Rocking R6 Ranch

I hope that you had an outstanding Thanksgiving holiday.  I stayed relatively close to home so I didn't shoot any images from a blind this weekend.  I'm hoping for next weekend, though all of my favorite blind areas here in Texas are showing a good chance of rain at this point for the coming weekend.

Good news to share today.  I have added a new property to the bird blind map that offers blind rentals.  It is the Rocking R6 and it is about a half hour or so north of Laredo.  This once again shifts the overall coverage area further to the southwest.

The proprietor, Butch Ramirez, is also an outstanding photographer in his own right as the images on his site reflect.  In my opinion this is an ideal situation: A photographer who knows his craft, knows the land, and knows the light setting up blinds for other photographers.  It doesn't get any better than that.

The ranch will also be home to an ICF Pro-Am competition the long weekend of April 27th to April 30th.  ICF only picks the best for their competitions, so undoubtedly this is an outstanding place to shoot.  This property has also been the site of other photographers doing workshops.  All signs that this is a great place to shoot.

The prices are in line if not a little bit lower than most of the ranches in Texas:

• $75 for a half day
• $125 for a full day
• $200 for a weekend safari

I like the fact that he offers half day rentals.  Shooting for an entire day is not a trivial matter.  As I mentioned way back at the beginning of this blog in 2008, if you are doing what a craftsman does with a camera, a day full of shooting is very mentally taxing.  Up there with spending a day of doing nothing but writing programming code for those who have engaged in the art.  A half day is a good set of training wheels before daddy lets go of the bike.

Butch is doing another weekend safari the weekend of December 10th & 11th.  He also offers other amenities that go a little beyond the scope of this blog, but I know that sending an e-mail off to him will garner a quick response and he can fill you in on the details.

I hope to get out to the Rocking R6 Ranch once spring breaks.  It looks like a great addition to the blind landscape.

November 20th Report - Pedernales Falls State Park Blind #2

Wow... what a great trip to Pedernales Fall SP.  This trip was everything the previous week's trip to South Llano River SP was not.

Weather was not great for this trip.  Cloudy with some significant gusty wind here and there.  Temperatures were a little cooler, but still very pleasant in short sleeves.

But I had this trip what I didn't have in the trip to South Llano River SP--very light traffic into and out of the blind.  When I walked in to the blind it was empty, though I had walked into the gate with a 2nd person.  He eventually joined me over there and stuck around for a while.  After a spell he left for destinations south, but a couple from the Houston area came in and stayed for an extended visit.  Other than that the blind was quiet.  And that made all of the difference because the blind landing area had a chance to stabilize.  Circles of fear were relaxed a little bit and plenty of birds came into the blind area.

Species spread was reasonably broad.  I counted 19 species in the 2 1/2 hours that I spent in the blind.  Surprisingly enough there were no doves among that group, nor were there any White-crowned Sparrows.   High quantity birds were Northern Cardinals, Rufous-crowned Sparrows, and White-throated Sparrows. 

The "Bird of the Day" though as far as images went was the Eastern Phoebe.  It didn't stay in the blind area long, but the time that it did spend was productive and it perched for reasonably long period of time on two different spots.  This produced what is easily the best image I've made of this particular bird.

Close seconds on bird of the day were a Carolina Wren and female Ladder-backed Woodpecker.  The Ladder-backed though gets the frame count record for the day that landed somewhere in the mid-80's between three different perch locations.

All in all this was an outstanding morning of bird watching and bird photography.  I met some neat, considerate, and very knowledgeable folks.  I made a big number of images.  I added three to my documented life list of birds:  The Orange-crowned Warbler (Oreothlypis celata), the White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) , and the Rufous-crowned Sparrow (Aimophila ruficeps).

I really enjoyed the peace and quiet that comes from shooting out of a blind.  I can't wait to get back to Pedernales Falls SP.

Images:
Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe), Pedernales Falls SP, © Jim Miller, jmillerphoto.com
Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus), Pedernales Falls SP, © Jim Miller, jmillerphoto.com

November 13th Report - South Llano River SP - Acorn Blind

I will rarely complain about getting to spend a day in a bird blind.  And I'm not going to complain about my recent visit to South Llano River State Park's Acorn Blind (aka Blind #4, aka Powered Camping blind).  But honestly the results were marginal to disappointing.

For those of you who have read this blog for a long time, you know hat South Llano River State Park (SLRSP) is one of my favorite places to shoot in blinds.  The four blinds in the park make it easily the single best public property for blinds in the entire state of Texas.  And the Acorn is my favorite because it is the most intimate of the four in the park.

But on this fall morning there was very little that was working.  Part of this is just luck of the draw.  Part of this was my tardiness in arrival.  And part of it illustrates some of the short comings of shooting in a public blind.

First and foremost I did not get into the blind early enough, or as early as the park would allow.  This one is on me.  I probably lost 90 good minutes because of my laziness.  Point accepted.  But even more ideal would be the ability to get into the blind before 8AM.  Unfortunately, unless you are camping in the park the earliest you can get your permit for the day is 8AM.  At private blinds this is not a problem--property owners cater to early arrival because they know it works best for the photographers.

Also, during my time in the blind there was nearly constant stream of foot traffic.  This is good because it shows that people are at least interested in birding and getting kids started at this age leads to the hope that maybe even a small percentage of these will continue with birding and help keep the cycle of funding and blind building going.  But all that traffic never allows the blind to settle and stabilize.  Thus, only the bravest (or hungriest) of the birds venture in.  Needless to say, at private blinds this is not a problem.

What caused this traffic was two things.  First, it was the end of the Veteran's Day holiday weekend and the campgrounds were packed with people.  Second, the trail down to Buck Lake which is normally closed off for Turkey Roosting is now open after 10AM.  Of course, I got there not too much earlier than 10AM so the constant foot traffic down to the trails added to the misery on the day.

I'm hoping in mid to late spring to test the public/private mix at one of the blinds in that area by going to the park one day and to the private blind another day.

But again, I'm not going to complain because even with those issues the bird photography was reasonably good.  Certainly a lot better than still being cooped up in the house post-surgery.

Species spread was narrow.  The birds of the day with the highest population were Field Sparrows and Inca Doves.  The Field Sparrows were a life list add, though that was likely an oversight from previous times.  My other life list add of the day was the Yellow-rumped Warbler.  Only one on the day early in the visit, but images good enough for identification purposes.  Wish it had gotten a little closer to the front, but if wishes were fishes.

Also present were the usual suspects:  Northern Cardinals, Black-crested Titmice, House Finches, Lesser Goldfinches, White-crowned sparrows, and many others.  No woodpeckers, just one White-winged Dove, and Mourning Doves were conspicuously absent from the mix.  There's at least one more sparrow to identify in the mix.

The blind is still in very good shape.  It still has the theater-style padded, folding seating which is only marginally useful for photography.  I spent most of my time at the far side of the blind.  I still need to pick up an appropriate folding chair for the other window.

Total time in the park was about 2 hours.  Fifteen to twenty minutes of that time was spent gingerly walking down the Buck Lake to do some scouting for a different project and hoping to see a water bird or two.  No luck on the water bird, but amazingly enough there were a couple of damselflies on the pond.

All in it was marginal for photography, but still a good visit to the park.

About the Image:
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Dendroica coronata), South Llano River SP, Junction, Texas

Filling in Most of the Blanks

Welcome to blog entry 100.  I'm happy that you're still with me on the journey.  I'm sure we'll be around for at least 100 more...

I'm down to just the Cozad Ranch when it comes to missing information.  Fennessey Ranch no longer offers daily rentals of their blinds.  They have moved instead to a membership program which gives unlimited access to the blinds and the rest of their ranch for a specific fee for a timeframe that encompasses early spring to about the start of hunting season.  I'm marking it on the blind map in the most expensive category based on the fact that very few of us have the chance to shoot more than 3-4 days a year and that best reflects their fee structure.  Of course, if you're retired and having nothing else to do (and are close to the property), then this is a bargain.  I do encourage you to visit their site and inquire about the details.  It might very well work for you and how you shoot.  It doesn't work for me.

I will try to readdress with Cozad Ranch in the next day or two to finally clean off all of the unknowns on the map.

I was successful in finding my way to South Llano River SP on Sunday and I will have my thoughts on that visit in the next day or so.

Edited at 8:19pm adding that the fee at Fennessey Ranch also covers the rest of the ranch.  Again, contact them for more details.