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Monday's forecast for was heavy cloud cover all day and we headed east. Early. Dang, y'all drive in that traffic every day? We made it out to High Island a little after 9 am and after complaining again about the No Equipment Cart Rule to the nice (but sympathetic) Audubon lady we made our way up to the last platform.
It is hard for a photographer to chose their favorite bird, but Crested Caracaras are special to me. They are not all that common so you get excited when you see one. The high-contrast dark and light plumage is a challenge and since they are scavengers as well as hunters, their behavior is unpredictable.
This is that in between time for chasing birds. The Winter visitors are beginning to leave for breeding grounds in the north and our Spring migrants have not yet arrived. Plus, we have had a fairly wet winter and our year-round birds have spread out.
The rookery at Smith Oaks is action-packed with nesting Great Egrets and an unusual amount of early Roseate Spoonbill residents.
We visited the Great Blue Heron Rookery at Rockport last week and it survived Harvey quite nicely. The birds are courting and building nests.
From Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge and down the Bolivar Peninsula, then catch the Galveston Ferry back to the mainland. A great trip with a lot of birds.
Little Blue Heron delicately plucks a tiny fish from near the Spillway at Brazos Bend State Park. You haven't been out there since Harvey flooded it for the umpteenth time? You really should make the trip.
Getting a sharp, clear image of a bird in flight (or BIF) is a goal of most avian photographers. Some people seem to have a knack for finding and following birds in a blank sky while the rest of us struggle.
There are so many simple things you can do in post-processing to improve your bird photography. Oh, if you are a purist and just do SOOC images, fine, catch you next time.
This is for those other folks who like to tweak their images a bit.
It really won't be long before birds are sporting breeding plumage and courting. We are seeing dark blue lores on Great Blue Herons, and other waders are sporting new feathers. Great Egrets will start building nests at High Island in February. In the mean time, we are chasing raptors and finding birds where we can.
