06 September 2010

Big Piney River

The Big Piney River runs through Fort Leonard Wood. We took a short trip on a section of it Saturday with some friends. I purchased a Pelican 1150 box for my camera so I can take it on my kayak without fear of it getting drowned.

Didn't take a ton of pictures, but a Green Heron cooperated with me for a few shots.



After reading up on my camera's manual some this week, I'm learning how to use the zoom and focus features I want, so I was able to capture this female American Rubyspot on a twig.



It was a pleasant float, on a very serene stretch of river.

31 August 2010

The Spectacle Continues



Activity has been frenetic at our hummingbird feeder. I suspect they are fueling up for migration. I shot some pictures this evening through the door onto our deck, so the quality is a little off, but I caught some great action.

Yes, hummingbirds can open their beaks--


The above picture shows off the new perch of dominance. They aren't perching on the hanger as much but instead are sitting on the high side of the feeder "flowers" as their perch to guard the feeder from each other.

I was blessed, and when reviewing pictures I saw that I caught one with it's tongue out as well. They are quite long, which allows them to get nectar from those far-down-in places.



My wife thinks they are looking a little broader as they "bulk up" (seems odd to say of a bird that weighs less than ounce). What do you think? Does her butt look big?



I don't want to leave the impression that any sort of peace has broken out around the feeder, however. Plenty of action abounds as this final shot shows.

21 August 2010

Dueling Hummers



We had 5 hummers all eating at our feeder at once for a moment the other morning. A sixth upset the uneasy detente and they were back to their aerial acrobatics again. Often the "dominant" hummer (it seems to rotate) will perch on the hanger on top of the feeder. This is cool, because I have seen them stick their very long tongues out while doing this. (Unfortunately I have not captured it with my camera yet.)

I don't know if they are trying to cool off (like dogs) or if they are taunting each other (that's probably an anthropomorphism). I've also noticed when I have been out there with them, they can fly "noisily" when they want. They seem to do this to try to intimidate each other--brrrrrrrrr--they come whirring in. Other times, they are very quiet, like when one came to check on me last night as I was refilling the feeder. Just hovered about 3' in front of me for a moment to see what I was doing with the feeder.

07 August 2010

Happy Hollow

Went to the "Happy Hollow" area of Fort Leonard Wood this morning. Nice little park along the Big Piney River.



I didn't see much for birds, but had a good day of odes and some butterflies as well. A Hackberry Emperor gave me nice views of both top and bottom side of wings.

Hackberry Emperor

Pipevine Swallowtails were abundant.



And now onto the odes--first the damselflies. Many Powdered Dancers were perched along the river's edge.



A Stream Bluet:



Dusky Dancer:



And just a couple of inches over on the same twig, a Blue-ringed Dancer.



Finally, two dragons. First, a Black-shouldered Spinylegs, a common river denizen.



And the highlight of the day for me, a dragon I've been after for a few years, a Dragonhunter. (Dragonhunter has been my screen name on several message boards for years, reflecting my interest in odes in general.)

06 August 2010

Lake of the Ozarks Recreation Area

A Chaplaincy anniversary celebration picnic took me to the Lake of the Ozarks today. I, of course, brought along my new camera. I had the best luck finding butterflies.



This Eastern Tailed-Blue confused me with it's apparently dark wing-tip. This was a one-shot-and-gone butterfly, so all I had to work with was this picture and my field guide as I sat on the couch tonight.



Common Buckeyes were, well, common. I began to notice a trend, namely, they seem to like rather, shall we say nasty, stuff to hang out on. Like fish heads...



or Canada Goose exhaust....



Here's one in a more benign setting.





This one really threw me. Took me quite a while to get over its wing markings and focus on it's odd front-end. American Snout, indeed.



An ever-beautiful Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.



Barn Swallows resting on a small helipad.



And finally, a crow that was perched in a dead tree by the boat ramp.

05 August 2010

New Camera!

After looking and thinking for a long time, I finally bit the bullet and ordered a Canon Powershot SX20IS. So far, I am very impressed. Just took it out back and took some snapshots to see what it could do.



This thing can zoom. (20x optical!)



The exposure isn't perfect on this next one, but I'm hopeful with what it can reach out and grab.



I'm looking forward to more posting on here now that I've got a new shooting platform!

04 August 2010

Catching Up

On the trip from South Carolina to Missouri, I went by way of Ohio and visited my parents. We spent an afternoon at some local preserves looking at birds and butterflies. Here's what I found.

Cabbage White
Cabbage White

Eastern Comma
Eastern Comma

Hackberry Emperor
Hackberry Emperor

24 July 2010

Damn

Part of my life involves moving. It has benefits, namely it gets me to new and different habitats to see new and different birds and such.

This last move had a bad downside. The movers lost a box. Just one. Box 136-Green.

Box 136 had almost all of my bird books in it. It had 3 binders in it. One was service-related records (which fortunately had all been scanned a few months previous) and 2 full of bird records that had not.

Now, I still have my life-list in digits. But I lost a bunch of trip reports and other bits of written data pertinent to my birding over the last 20 years.

Books are now arriving from Buteo Books and Amazon.com. The check came in the mail. Still, I'll never have the second edition National Geographic Guide that was well-worn that I bought that first spring of birding at Bosque Del Apache NWR. A few titles were so out of print they could not be found.

I picked up a few titles I'd been wanting. Birding on Borrowed Time being one of them. Started reading it today and am enchanted with Phoebe's record keeping she's describing.

It all makes me think again of my records, and how to keep them.

My life list is an Excel spreadsheet. Fairly portable and compatible. But it's getting big enough that it is less so. Having lost hard-copy records reinforces the idea of remote backups as well.

The good news, on a less introspective scale, I think, maybe, I've defeated the Carpenter Ants who had been ravaging my hummingbird feeder.

13 April 2010

First Time

We recently took a quick trip to Florida, which, of course, included some time spent at Fort DeSoto County Park. I enjoyed my time watching waders, of course. Unfortunately, there was a fresh southwesterly breeze so any trans-gulf migrants were pushing farther inland or hiding in lower branches to stay out of the breeze.

P1040326


Saw this interesting combination of trees near the entrance to Arrowhead Picnic Area.

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My daughter took a few pictures of me birding.

After the kids tired of the beach, I took them back to Grandpa and Grandma's and made my way to E.G. Simmons County Park. More shorebirds.

P1040337


Willets were in number everywhere.

Finally, I had my first. Not a new bird, per se, but a new birding experience. I saw a Gray Flycatcher. I had previously seen them in the Bahamas in 2005. This was a first for my US list, though. Therefore, it was the first bird to be a "country bird" in the US without being a lifer.

As I was pondering all of this back at my in-laws, a Swallow-tailed Kite flew over their backyard, eventually there were 6 of them circling about in the evening sky. These were lifers.