Category: Nature Photography
-
Operation PhotoTrogon
On Monday, 5/9/22, Rich Brown and I (Jim Gain) rendezvoused in Turlock, CA to begin Operation PhotoTrogon. Our target lay deep in the canyons of the Santa Rita and Huachuca mountains in SouthEast Arizona. With plans to traverse the most treacherous terrain filled with cold-blooded reptiles, sharp-spined Saguaro and crafty…
-
700 o busto – Cuenta regresiva de Lifer
Con un BIP BIP BIP desagradablemente fuerte, mi alarma de las 5:00 am me despertó de un sueño profundo. La adrenalina se disparó instantáneamente y literalmente salté de la cama. Estaba seguro de que hoy me traería la especie Lifer número 700. Estaba en una visita de regreso a la…
-
700 or Bust – Lifer Countdown
With an obnoxiously loud BEEP BEEP BEEP, my 5:00 am alarm woke me from a deep sleep. The adrenaline instantly kicked in and I was literally jumping out of bed. I was certain that today would bring me lifer species number 700. I was on a return visit to the…
-
A 4 “Yucatán” Bird Day
As I looked ahead to the list of birds that would be “lifers” (never observed before) for me in the Yucatán peninsula there were upwards of 100 species that I thought I had a fairly decent chance of seeing. This list of 100 species was composed of mostly common to…
-
Holy Batcave – Batman
Taking a slight deviation from my theme of Yucatan Birds, one of the biggest Holy Guacamole moments was actually of a different kind of flying vertebrate – bats. Deep in the forests of southern Campeche is a unique natural protected area known as “Zona Sujeta a Conservación Ecológica Balam-Kú” in…
-
Let’s Groove Tonight
Groove-billed Ani – Crotophaga sulcirostris Ranging from the tip of Northern Chile to the lowlands of Southern Texas, the Groove-billed Ani is a member of the Cuculidae Family that also includes Roadrunners and Cuckoos. It can be found throughout the Yucatán Peninsula often found foraging on the arthropods flushed up…
-
In Search of a 5-Star Rated Vermilion Flycatcher Photo
After seeing several recent excellent photos of the returning Vermilion Flycatcher by Doug Krajnovich at Lake Yosemite County Park In Merced County, CA., I decided I ought to try and track it down and shoot it. Digitally that is! ABOUT THE PARK Lake Yosemite is a freshwater reservoir built in…
-
Baa Baa Sheepshead, Have you any birds?
Post #6 of The Great Texas Birding Adventure Previous Post #5 South Padre Island – Migratory Bird Mecca Smallest of the South Padre Island (SPI) Big Three birding spots, the Valley Land Fund Lots on Sheepshead Dr. seems to have the biggest concentration of birds. The fact that the dense…
-
The Undiscovered Country
2021 Merced County Species-to-Date (as of last checklist)Life List = 186Year List = 140 Whereas this title may bring to mind either Shakespeare’s Hamlet or Gene Roddenberry’s Start Trek VI, it is merely a reference to the Eastern Merced County grasslands that I had never ventured into before. I again…
-
Birding Between the Storms
2021 Merced County Species-to-Date (as of last checklist)Life List = 183Year List = 122 Seeing a break between storms, I reached out to Rich Brown and Dale Swanberg to see if they wanted to explore the San Luis Reservoir State Recreation areas. I was hoping that something unusual would show…
Reflections of the Natural World 