Mardi Gras parade, Port Aransas style

A little late in posting a Mardi Gras theme, but there is no hurry to get anything done on the island.

The parade started off with a golf cart, of course!

A side view of the leading golf cart. These things can be get in the way legally around the island.

Love that paint job. I recognize the driver as someone who works at my park.

No parade would be complete without a pirate dog.

The Gaff, a favorite watering hole, is running with the pirate theme.

Self-explanatory, I guess. There may have been some writing on the car, but I must have missed it.

What a lame way to get beads.

A few old cars

That's Maverick, one of my neighbors. He's a good boy. Not sure how he scored his beads.

The parade begins and ends at the Gaff. Cold beer and tasty pizza are the offerings here.

Final stop on the way home is the Tarpon Ice House. The Ice House frequently offers free live music, as well as more cold beer. A ice house was a place to store ice prior to the invention of the refrigerator. I haven't heard this reference outside of Texas, but it may be common elsewhere.

Banner morning at the Birding Center

I had a wonderful morning at the Bird Center today.

An American White Pelican was enjoying the sunrise when I arrived.

It wasn't long before a Harrier Hawk came screaming by, flying low over some ducks.

A Blue-winged Teal slowly paddled by.

A Black-crowned Night Heron also took the opportunity to do a duck-flyover.

It wasn't long before a Brown Pelican appeared voicing his opinion of all the low flying activity.

Meanwhile, a Snowy Egret was having a very ugly bad-hair day. I had big fun photographing this bird.

The Brown Pelican might have been feeling neglected and started splashing behind me. It was either taking a shower or trying to scare up some breakfast.

Charlie, the resident Great Blue Heron showed up to give me some company. I've never seen him catch anything while fishing next to me. It may have been looking for a hand out.

A male Red-winged Blackbird was preening on the other side of the boardwalk. Females are brown.

A Green-winged Teal groomed himself while his female friend snoozed indifferently.

And finally, a Tri-colored Heron caught a bit of breakfast.

All in all, a wonderful morning to photograph birds. While I've photographed this birds before, never with so much fun. To top it off, it's supposed to be 75 degrees today. It just doesn't get much better than this.

Winding down 2012

Nothing much happening on a misty, dreary day on the the Texas Gulf Coast besides listening to a little Willie Nelson, so............

One of my favorite images from Bosque Del Apache. A Sandhill Crane departs a pond in early morning. I haven't decided this is a bird photo, a scenic or nature photo. Maybe all of the above.

A Snow Goose takes a drink of ice cold water, again at Bosque Del Apache.

You can't tell me this guy isn't aware of what's going on down below.

Must not be any Coke machines,  Red Bull or hot coffee around. It seems that wildlife only drinks water!

On the way to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge (back in Texas again) I pulled over to the side of the road to observe this Northern Harrier. It wasn't long before a Mockingbird came up and started slamming into the back of the hawk. Almost knocked it off it's perch a couple of times. This is a fairly sizable crop.

Here's another hawk that flew in front of me while I was standing on the boardwalk, Port Aransas, TX.  They're fast when coming straight at the camera and almost impossible (for me) to get in focus.

A juvenile Black-Crowned Night Heron that flew directly at me, again at the Bird Center, Port Aransas, TX. This is the only frame that came out sharp, and it's a full-frame uncropped image. Got lucky on this one.

Yes, Marianne. If you're reading this I'm saving as I go along.

One more hawk photo. It seems that a lot of people get excited to see hawks/raptors. I'm usually just as excited to get a picture that's in focus. While I enjoy taking bird photos but am looking forward to 2013 and moving on to the Hill Country and getting a few landscapes and some Texas Bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrush. So, Happy New Year to all!

More Roseate Spoonbills and the ARK sea-turtle release

Back to the Packery Channel for some more Roseate Spoonbill photos, then on to the ARK turtle release.

There were only 2 Spoonbills at the channel this morning, and while the smaller birds don't care where I am, the spoonbills are always very aware of my presence.

If I can't see you, does that mean you can't see me?

So much for that, this spoonbill is out of here.

Many bird photographers will get down in the mud and muck for an eye-level shot. Not me, thank you very much.

Tony Amos, along with two sea turtles has arrived at the beach for a release back into the "wild." ARK, Animal Rehabilitation Keep at UT Marine Service Institute on Mustang Island, rehabilitates injured and sick marine animals and then releases them back to nature once healed. Dr. Amos is the gent on the left with a camera strapped to the top of his head. The man in the center has on a t-shirt which says Turtle Patrol.

I didn't catch what type of turtle this is, but when rescued it was only about 5 inches long. It now weighs about 20 lbs, and was given the name "Lucky."

I don't know where the two spectators front and center got off to, but this island isn't that big. :-)

This is a logger-head turtle. When rescued it had lost a lot of weight and had a few various diseases.
Apparently it had a fish hook lodged in it and was found floating on the ocean, most likely not far from death's door. I believe it weighed 80 lbs at the time of release. Since it never was named, the children at the release named it Bevo, or Tevo. Something like that.

The release was successful. Both turtles swam off and I got another t-shirt I don't need, but the cost of the shirt, along with a little extra in change is going to a good cause.

Roseate Spoonbill

I'm not sure how this is going to function since it apparently quit working properly around the time I lost about 2/3's of my FB friend contacts, so I'll make this brief in case it doesn't post properly.

I went to my second favorite place for "birding" this morning at the crack of dawn and was able to capture this image of wading Roseate Spoonbills.

As the sun was rising over the horizon, I adjusted the camera's ISO from 800 to 400 so they would be less noise to process out of the image. Little did I know that a cloud was going to block the sun for a few minutes. With the reduced camera speed, less light, and a 1.7 teleconverter attached to the lens that doesn't auto focus as fast as the lens does without a teleconverter, I got this somewhat "soft" image as the spoonbills took that moment the cloud drifted over the sun to lift off.

One spoonbill didn't fly as far away as the others, so out of several attempts at quickly focusing I was able to capture one frame of this guy as he was landing. While it's not that difficult to photograph a spoonbill in flight, or wading, I haven't been able to capture one landing before. It's not quite what I want, but I'll take it.

Since the morning Spoonbill shoot was effectively over, I went to the Leonabelle Turnbull Center where this odd duck flew overhead. This is a severe crop. For some reason ducks aren't landing here, but are flying over this particular body of water.

Nothing else interesting was moving, and since I could see a tanker moving down the channel, I hurried over to the ferry boat landing in an attempt to photograph the dolphins that usually surf in front of this particular oil tanker. (Photo of ship not included) That ship was moving really making headway leaving me only enough time for one grab shot of this dolphin as he was catching air. This image also took a bit of cropping, but doesn't look too bad. Tomorrow will be devoted to soley dolphin photography. At least that's the current plan.

There are two ways to get onto Mustang Island. One way is by a short ferry boat ride from Aransas Pass, the other is by crossing over a causeway that connects the island to Corpus, about a 20 mile drive from Port Aransas and on the south side of the island.

This is one of the ferrys as it debarks on the other side of the "ditch." The ferry ride takes only about 5 minutes to cross the channel.

Now let's see if this blog will post. I've already gotten one "error message."

Long winter

and I haven't felt like doing any photography. Hopefully my mood will change when flowers start blooming. Today, however, I got an email from Alien Skin stating they had a 30% sale, so since it's raining and I haven't anything better to do....... spend some money.

Below are images that was taken in West Virginia last fall, about 100 years ago. At least it feels like that long ago. Snap Art 2 is kindof fun. Now I can pretend I have an iPhone with more apps than a person can count.

The above had one of the medium oil brush presets applied. Dolly Suds.

I believe the above had impasto, or portrait applied, giving it a slightly different texture. I wasn't satisfied with my processing of this image before, but now I think I can make something out it.

Douglas Falls area.

First falls below Blackwater Lodge. Greg and Don look like could be panning for gold. I believe this was a watercolor preset.

All in all this looks like a fun program, even if it is more expensive than phone camera applications.

I need to find something else to do

It's only mid-December, and I'm going to have to find something else to do. But until then, these backyard birds don't cease to amaze me. My neighbors need to put their feeders out, and soon.

They watch me watch them.

This must be the female downy woodpecker. There's also one with a red spot that must be the male.

Downy woodpecker in motion. Yep, I'm getting bored.

Some of these Eastern Bluebirds have a more vibrant blue color than others.

These don't normally perch in the tree for me.

These guys are pretty entertaining.

House finch that could probably use a little "catch light" in it's eye.

I believe this is a goldfinch in it's winter colors. Or it could be a female.

I believe this is a house wren. Identification would be a lot easier if they looked exactly like their descriptions and sketches as depicted in the "Quick Guide."


There are probably more birds processed, but I've had enough. I'm headed for the bar where I'll contemplate my next project.