Buck Creek Birds

Some migrating birds from Buck Creek State Park yesterday. 
The warblers were moving through at a good pace...sitting at a picnic table between two flowering crabs was productive....and relaxing. 

Rough-Winged Swallows

I spent an enjoyable morning watching some Rough-Winged Swallows monitoring their nests. 
The highlight was when a Carolina Wren tried to invade their territory. They quickly chased it away!

Planets and Moon Align....

On April 14 and 15, the alignment of Mars, Saturn and Jupiter were visible in the pre-dawn southeastern sky.
Both mornings, I took a chance on having clear skies and headed out back to try to get some images.
For these images, I used the "Starry Sky" autofocus mode on the Olympus EM1M3 with the Zuiko 14-150mm lens. The Starry Sky mode allows sharp focus of stars for hand-held exposures; almost impossible to achieve with standard focusing. Both images were 3 second exposures; with a double exposure of the moon for corrected brightness.

Using the website Time and Date (Night Sky Map), I was able to see when the best alignment woould occur. I planned my shots based on this.

Image editing included levels and curves in Photoshop, as well as double exposure of the moon. Without stacking a spot metered moon, the moon was very overexposed in the base image. 

The previous morning, I had been able to shoot the linear alignment. 

More Huffman Prairie

More practice pics with the Pro Capture mode on the Olympus EM1M3.

Easter Sunday at Huffman Prairie

Easter Sunday under "Social Distancing" orders. 
Despite the gray skies, we elected to take a drive to Huffman Prairie to see some Great Horned Owlets. 
Saw the Owlets, and had a great time playing with the Pro Capture mode on the Olympus EM1M3. 

Cedar Bog Snakes

Cedar Bog Walk

I spent a beautiful spring afternoon at Cedar Bog. During this pandemic, we are all expected to use "social distancing" to help limit the spread of the virus. During my walk, I only saw about 7 folks, and they were all adherent to the guidelines. At one point, a young couple were closing in behind me on the boardwalk, and they stopped...allowing distancing between us. I laughed, and told them to go ahead and pass, as I would be moving very slowly and didn't want to hold them up. So they passed as I kept stayed as far to the edge as possible, with my back toward them. Such are the ways of the pandemic. 
Some of my finds on this visit..... 

Snyder Park Birds

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

This fellow was looking in our kitchen window this morning.

Song Sparrow

Some Song Sparrow pics from Buck Creek State Park.

Flight Practice

More flight shot practice today with the Olympus EM1 M3 and Zuiko 300mm. I am using the C-AF Track mode, which locks focus on a subject and tracks it. A green box around the subject indicates that it is in focus, and if focus is lost the box turns red. 
There's a low spot in the corn field across the road from us, that becomes a duck pond in the spring. Since we had good light today, I took advantage of the opportunity and pulled my car off of the road parallel to the water. Although it's just across the road, the ducks tolerate the car, whereas if I walk over, they fly. 

Killdeer

Killdeer flight shot

Crazy Coots!

American Coots at Old Reid in Clark County yesterday.

Sometimes when I watch them, I understand where the saying "Crazy as a Coot" comes from.

An excerpt from Wildlife Center of Texas:

"Some animal sayings make sense, “busy as a bee”; while others “she eats like a bird” couldn’t be further from the truth. Birds are gluttons since they must have the energy to sustain flight, so if she “ate like a bird”, she’d be quite round. Maybe the familiar saying, “crazy as a coot” has more to do with the dichotomy between the peaceful bird quietly paddling in the middle of the pond and the aggressive display as it runs over the water towards its target flapping its wings and screaming wildly. The Doctor Jekyll personality is relaxing to watch, but the occasional burst of Mr. Hyde is quite entertaining."

If you've never seen those big green feet, they look like they were borrowed from a cartoon character. Coots are fun to watch and they may be crazy, but I think they're pretty clever and fun regardless!

The Way the Crow Flies....

Flight shot practice .....Olympus EM1M3 and Zuiko 300mm. 

American Kestrel

We were doing our little drive-about and headed down Hodge Rd, in Clark County to check on the eagle nest there. This Kestrel was perched on the telephone line, and was fearless as we approached. When we stopped, he flew down and perched on cat-tails at eye level. 
I added the 2x converter to my Olympus EM1 Mark 3 and Zuiko 300mm combo and took some shots. I didn't plan on them being much...he was fairly distant, it was windy, and background separation wasn't great. 
Up ok n pulling up the images, I was ppl pleasantly surprised that there were salvageable...processed with Topaz AI Denoise and AI Sharpen.