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  Birdsiview

Rio Grande Valley, Summer 2016

Day 1 - Mexiquita Flats

6/10/2016

5 Comments

 
In May I began a new job as Stewardship Director with the Texas Land Conservancy. We hold conservation easements throughout the entire state of Texas(sans pan handle) and I'm responsible for the annual monitoring. Our Mexiquita Flats easement is a mangrove and sea grass habitat in Port Isabel, and while planning my site visit I realized how awfully difficult the access was going to be. All of a sudden I knew what I needed to do. I bought a drone.
Picture
After beginning my new job I found an exciting rebirth of my interests in plants and wildlife. College was my heyday for birding and I hadn't done much bird photography since then but with my newly ignited interests I took a friend, Bryan Calk, up on an open invitation to come visit the Rio Grande Valley for some nature and bird watching.

​This trip ended up being a spectacular weekend for wildlife which is most of what you'll see in these posts. I dusted off my 70-200mm f/2.8 lens and popped on a 2x teleconverter. I had never used this combination before but after selling my old bird lenses I had no choice. Lucky for me it worked really well! The lens was quite slow on auto-focus but the final result was satisfyingly sharp!
I hope you don't mind a change from landscape photography (RGV sure isn't known for their landscapes) and enjoy this wonderful wildlife!

Killdeer
Willet
Willet
Great-blue Heron
Reddish Egret
Reddish Egret
Reddish Egret
Herons
Nighthawks are one of my top three favorite birds. I love seeing them come out at dusk at the end of those long summer days. And they're kind of like bats. That just flap around catching bugs with their huge mouths.
Common Nighthawk
Common Nighthawk
Common Nighthawk
Common Nighthawk
Common Nighthawk
Great Southern White Butterfly
5 Comments
Lynn Ramirez
6/19/2016 10:23:35 am

Really interesting, I'm ready to see and read more!

Reply
Connie Doherty
6/19/2016 11:42:21 am

This is so interesting. Your photos are spectacular! I can't wait to see and read more.

Reply
Dianne Wassenich
6/19/2016 11:58:32 am

That water is such a spectacular blue. And love that face of the nighthawk.

Reply
Adam Abrams
6/19/2016 03:38:06 pm

You're a good dude! Glad you're enjoying the new job...well deserved.

Reply
Tom Hayes
6/20/2016 01:45:06 pm

Different and nice change in photo perspective with your new drone! Might you bring it to the middle Trinity or Big Cypress to TLC sites during the next year, and have time, TCS is working on floodplain inundation restoration at several sites up there.

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