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.

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