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.

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

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