JDW Photos and Life

After the whooping crane family left with the pelicans, I took a quick photo of a hog before we left the location. Fortunately, all I wasted was a few electrons on this critter. The hog was likely eating the red wolf-berries seen in the photo. We moved the boat to a new family group of whooping cranes. These three were on the sunny side of the boat and forced us to shoot into the sun - rarely a good thing for photography. You can see this colt has much less color indicating a bit older. It is still interesting to see how the color transforms to pure white. We were commenting about their poor choice of lighting for our preference. They overheard us and agreed to move to the west side of the waterway for better portrait lighting. As they took off into the sun, they were whooping up a storm and letting us know it was OK to follow them! They crossed the water and landed in their new territory with the sun behind us. You can see the color variation of the colt on the topside of his wings. O...

First, I hope you had an enjoyable Thanksgiving. Many of you wrote back and wished me a happy Thanksgiving (thank you). Indeed, we were blessed with a good family gathering in Amarillo. We are even more fortunate to claim we survived I-35 and the awful mess around Waco. We left Amarillo at 6:00 this morning to try and avoid the expected traffic jam as everyone returned from the holidays. Traffic was bad at noon so I don't wish to think what traffic was like this evening. Well, we are back to Rockport and the battle for marsh territory between the pelicans and whooping crane family. Just as the pelicans arrived, they began their departure in the same single-file formations. The morning sun was behind us and provide a good opportunity to get a close view of the pelicans. They were all close enough that my telephoto lens couldn't capture the scope so you will have to be satisfied with small groups or individual portraits. With the pelicans having left the area, the family of whoop...

I mentioned in an earlier e-mail that the whooping cranes are territorial. The parents are also very defensive in protecting their colt. I never saw a specific gesture but there was sudden movement of the pelicans giving up that point of marsh to the whooping cranes. The pelicans were not just casually swimming away as you see. It was pretty clear who was the top bird in this part of the marsh. If the pelicans didn't move to the left (seen above), they moved to the right as seen in this photo. Whatever the case, they gave the cranes all the room the cranes wanted! Again, the colt looks really small in this photo! As if to declare their victory and claim to their land, both parents started whooping as junior kept looking for food. Stay in touch! Doug White

So all of these pelicans decided to land in the same area as our boat and family of whooping cranes. We saw them approaching from a long way off so I have no idea what attracted them to our location. This is a portion of the pelicans after most of the flocks landed. They were spread wider than my lens could capture. The family of whoopers went on about their business looking for food. You can see how perspective changes our view of size. The colt is in the foreground, is more horizontal, and possibly in deeper water so it looks much smaller than the parent. When side-by-side, on ground, and both standing tall, the colt and parent are much closer in size. As the family continues their stroll along the marsh, the water channel leads them to a large group of pelicans. The colt is easy to spot and the two parents have their head down looking for food. Hmmm..... What do you think happens next? Stay in touch! Doug White

We were photographing the whooping crane family in the previous e-mail when a large number of white pelicans decided to take center stage. I have no idea how many flew in but it was a LOT over several minutes. Here is one group coming in to land near us. Note that they are being led by a mighty cormorant! This fact is particularly funny since the mentor photographer of our group just "loves" cormorants! These are affectionately know as "Spencer Birds"! You can also see a blue heron on the far bank to the right of the photo. As the birds approached their desired landing spot, they began lining up in single file - again, led by the Spencer Bird! Several groups of penguins did the exact same thing over the next few minutes. One more shot as the group lands in single file while Spencer Bird continues on his way! Stay in touch! Doug White

As noted before, the Rockport flock of whooping cranes spend the summer in Wood Buffalo National Park in Northwest Territories of Canada - 2500 miles between the two locations. They often have a stop-over in Nebraska. They nest and hatch their young (colts) in Canada. The colts are born with brown feathers so to blend into the grasslands. As they mature, they transition to the adult white color. Only a few whooping cranes were in Rockport for our trip as we were very early in the migration season. Our guide knew their location and took us right to them in the early morning. They stake out sections of the marsh and become very territorial.  In this first photo, you see a mating pair with their colt. When we were photographing this family, we thought this colt looked small but this photo proves us otherwise! This is the most colored colt I (and others more experienced) have seen with very little white showing through. Very few brown feathers are actually visible when the colt flies (...

OK, I was too lazy and too warm in bed to get up and capture the lunar eclipse early this morning. However, I did take a moon photo this evening. The moon is waning (just past full moon) at 99.86%. As the shadow line moves over the moon, we can see more of the lunar landscape. In this case, the TINY shadow is about 10:00 - 4:00 on a clock face in this photo. You can see the sharp round moon outline on the lower left and the terrain on the upper right. Stay in touch! Doug White