JDW Photos and Life

One of the most colorful birds on the gulf coast is the Roseate Spoonbill and they also nest at the rookery at Smith Oaks. You might catch a distant glimpse of them at other times of the year around shore waters but the number and breeding colors are spectacular at this location and this time of the year (not to mention getting so close). In the first shot, the spoonbill is looking down at an intruder to his area. In the second shot, you see him spread his wings and clap that large bill to make other bird leave. You also see why they are called spoonbills! You see these birds use their large beak hitting and "biting" each other in territory scuffles. The sound is relatively loud and sounds like two wood blocks hitting each other. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

Two more photos of great white egrets. In the first photo, you get an idea of the nest density in the trees on the island. Nests are everywhere! The center egret was displaying its plumage similar to a peacock. The second photo is an egret in-flight with the breeding plumage showing its length down the back. Capturing a white bird against a very bright background can be a challenge. Photographers refer to this as white-on-white. It is a delicate balance of exposure such that details can still be seen in the white. Wedding photographers often have this challenge when capturing details (beading and lace) in the bridal gown. Their advantage is they often use lights and their subject isn't flying by at speed - usually, anyway! Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

I have to admit that I did not mow yesterday as my body was just a little too sore from moving mulch the day before. That's OK. Today WILL be the day. I have to resort back to photos from the past as I don't have anything new to share. The Houston Audubon Society maintains a bird sanctuary and rookery at High Island, TX called Smith Oaks. It is one of the premier locations to view amazing birds in the wild. Every spring, a wonderful variety of wading birds nest on a small island with great viewing platforms on nearby land. Birders from the world over come to this place at this time of the year. I try to get there at least once per year but have missed the last couple with COVID crap. Myself and two other photographer friends will return this Thursday. This is the earliest I have visited the site so I'm hoping nesting is progressing. We will see soon! Until then, I will be sharing a few shots from that 2016 trip. If you ever decide to visit, be prepared to fend off mosquitos...

This is the first spring in 10 years that I did not have a conflict preparing the landscape for spring. The grading and teaching load of the A&M gig made time time hard to come by at this point in the semester. I would cram a few hours of yard work between school duties that came first. Donnice working at the quilt shop the past 3 years also restricted time available. It was actually nice to be able to dedicate a full day to this work without getting behind on other things. During the DuPont days, our yard was a fraction of this size and I could freely take vacation days to get such work finished. We ordered 8 cubic yards of cedar mulch delivered Thursday afternoon. We loaded, moved, and spread all of it yesterday. It was a great day for manual labor - temperature in the mid-60's and overcast but not high humidity. As a bonus, there were no mosquitos! We definitely feel our age but are fortunate to still be able to do this. Advil is our friend. We still have some minor cleanup ...

Well, just one bird photo left of the Bridge City trip. It's another osprey that was eating its lunch high up a power transmission tower. The look it gave us made me think that it may have been one of our earlier birds! I read his look at "Enough is enough. Let me eat my lunch and leave me alone!". We did just that. The last photo is my friend and his mudboat pulled up to his relative's duck camp in the middle of nowhere - a happy man in his environment. The motor is the key component of a mudboat. It is air-cooled and the prop is very shallow yet it still goes ~30 mph in open water. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

We were in a mudboat capable of going into very shallow waters. On the point of another bend in the bayou, we spotted a Little Blue Heron fishing. We were too far away to see any detail other than movement. After getting the photos on my computer, we can clearly see the heron catching shrimp. He caught several before flying off. These birds are really dark and it takes better light to capture their full color. You can still see some of the red coloration blended with the blue. These photos were taken with the sun mostly behind the bird (backlit) - not the best for such a dark subject. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

From the first time I ever photographed a brown pelican, I have always thought of how prehistoric it looks. Just imagine a bird many times this size and you start seeing some of the artist's' depictions. The control of various wing and feather positions is also interesting. You can see much of these details with your eye on such a large bird but the camera really lets you study it. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

Brown pelicans are a common bird around the Texas coast. Photographing them is much easier than a raptor. They are expert gliders using the ground effect aerodynamics to skim across the water. They are also pretty comfortable around people. Though flying with some speed, they are large enough for the camera to catch focus. The first photo is pretty nice with the abandoned osprey nest on top of a channel marker and two pelicans in the frame. I'm told that nest was 3-4 times that size not long ago. It is unclear if weather wrecked the nest or if the Coast Guard removed much of it for better light visibility. The other photos are nice captures of a pelican passing relatively close with a great background of marsh grass. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

More osprey photos..... The osprey flew down to another sign on the bayou. We were not chasing it but there are only so many paths through the bayou so we caught back up with it. We slowed again to a near stop a fair distance from him but that was still to close. After a quick look around, he flew off again. This sequence shows consecutive shots of that first wing flap for takeoff. That first stroke has to be strong and full length. By chance, I think the camera captured the critical frames. Those talons put fear in every fish in the bayou. One of these days, I hope to get an osprey in a dive catching a fish. - unlikely, but I can still hope. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

A few more osprey in-flight photos. The first two below are a continuation of the shots yesterday. The last two photos are further into the flight and were taken in the same burst of shots. The camera is capturing about 15 frames/second the the time lapse between the two shots is about 1/15 second - pretty quick. It is amazing that in that short time, this large bird has cycled its long wings an entire stroke. I also find it interesting that its legs are changing positions quite a bit as opposed to most(?) birds tuck them and go. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

Ospreys are pretty common on the bayou but it I still love to see them. This guy was resting on a sign so we cut the boat off and drifted a bit - still quite a ways off. It was still more motion that the osprey wanted so off he went. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

The kingfisher continues its cat and mouse game of staying just in range for us to see it but never long enough for a clear shot at closer range. Using a big zoom lens on a moving boat does not make for award winning photos but I'm still happy to get what I can of this bird. The sequence starts with it departing from the tree shared yesterday, increasing speed, skimming the adjacent treetops (barely kept him in frame), and then escaping back down in the marsh grass. This bird is built for speed! Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

After the eagle, we saw a kingfisher darting around. These are tough birds to photograph. They are not large and they will not stay still at any reasonable distance to humans. They are just a cool looking bird in my opinion. They need to work on their modeling skills. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

We traveled to Bridge City this past weekend to celebrate a very dear friend's 70th birthday. I'm not dealing very well with the concept that my friends are hitting such a milestone. Time marches on. We went on a mudboat ride through Cow Bayou to see if there was any action to photograph. The first large bird we see in the sky is an immature bald eagle. It takes a couple of years for an eagle to fully develop the iconic coloring of our national bird. This one was in that transition. The bird was a long way from us, at a high angle, and I was in a rocking boat. Don't judge the photo quality! It's just great to see such a bird flying around the bayou. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

I was invited to a return trip to the eagle nest in Waco and certainly jumped at the opportunity. It had been two months since the trip of a lifetime. This trip yielded very few eagle photos (just this one e-mail). The parents were not as active and we saw only a couple of flights. However, we did get to see the two baby eagles in the nest. You only see one in the first nest picture but you can see both of them in the second. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/