Laurie's Blog

Grand Finale

admin — Sat, 10 May 2008 10:15:32 +0000

This ends the first week of my So Texas safari and I have to say that it was an outstanding week with more birds than I have been able to count so far. Some new to my files and some opportunities to add new and improved images of birds I already had to my files. The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher is without a doubt one of my favorites and it gave me many opportunities to photograph it. I even broke the spell and got one where it is just taking off.

Images captured with Nikon D3, AF-S 600mm VR, TC-14E or TC-17E on Lexar Digital Media

A Day At Dos Venadas

admin — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:00:48 +0000

Thursday found us at our fourth ranch, Dos Venadas owned by Steve Bentsen where we had an outstanding day of photography. As the temps rose, so did visitation to the water holes and more subjects filled our viewfinders.

Long-biller Thrasher in take-off mode.

Female Painted Bunting

Eastern Cottontail

Images captured with Nikon D3, AF-S 600mm, TC-14E on Lexar Digital Medai

Well Over Thirty

admin — Thu, 08 May 2008 09:49:28 +0000

Day three of my safari has us with over thirty birds from three ranches in our files. We spent the day at the Martin’s other ranch, the Javelina

Blue Grosbeak

We were thrilled when a couple of Scissor-tailed Flycatchers stopped by.

And, we all got to practice our panning techniques when this guy came racing by.

Images captured with Nikon D3, AF-S 600mm VR (Grosbeak with TC-14E) on Lexar Digital Media

New Day, New Ranch, New Subjects

admin — Thu, 08 May 2008 04:01:07 +0000

Tuesday found us at the Martin’s Ranch, The Homestead where we had a chance to photograph some new birds along with some we had already seen and enjoyed in a new environment. The shooting was great!

Plain Chachalaca

Great Kiskadee

Cactus Wren

Images captured with Nikon D3, AF-S 600mm and AF-S 300mm on Lexar Digital media

Rude Awakening

admin — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:59:22 +0000

The first alarm sounded at 1:20am with a piercing shriek, causing me to fly out of bed, heart pounding. I looked out in the hall and saw several other faces peering out in confusion. Figuring it was some prankster I was about to climb back in bed when the second ear splitting shriek sounded. OK, enough is enough. I looked out again and there were even more faces peering out. Only now I could smell smoke. I heard someone say something about the ice machine so I walked down the hall to investigate. The ice machine was fine but there was smoke pouring out of door marked laundry chute. Time to take this one seriously so, I hustled back to my room and like a good photographer grabbed my camera back and my computer and made my way down the three flights of stairs to the street. By now there were fire trucks pulling in (7 in all showed up) and a crowd gathering. McAllen’s finest took control and found the source of the fire…an electrical short and got to work. At 3:30am they had it under control and the smoke semi-blown out so we could return to our rooms. I crawled into bed knowing that darn alarm was going to wake me in an hour to start another day in my So Texas Photo Safari. Life is never a dull moment!

Images captured on Nikon D3, AF-S 24-70mm 2.8 on Lexar Digital Media