Marsh Views

My stick house next-door-neighbor brought in a crew of folk to landscape and trim his backyard (putting to shame my fifteen bags of mulch).  Some of his tree trimming work included branches that hang right over my air conditioner’s outside compressor unit.  I decided to stay close to home today and keep a look and listen for falling limbs.

I’ve entertained myself with manipulating colors and textures of recent field photos.  For those who think I never take photos of anything but birds, these photos prove that assumption to be only mostly true.

Ducks are hard to photograph.  Shy ones they are and a bit snobbish.  They don’t freeze frame for the picture, but turn their backs toward you as they make their way opposite of my camera’s stance.  

Anyone watching me attempting to photograph this Mottled Duck pair would have gotten a good laugh.  I was sneaking, hunched down, and trying to hide behind shrubs before popping up to photograph these lovelies: 

 A Tricolored Heron tried to sneak past me unnoticed, as I focused on the ducks.  He almost made it:

You may have noticed that I never tire of taking photos of Willets.  Akin to Killdeers they seem to parade for the camera:

I have a “thing for” bean pods.  A friend of mine applied her artistic watercolor talent, taking one of my RGV Ebony tree bean-pod photos and transforming it into physical art. It hangs on the wall, just left of my computer, keeping me company.

These GISP bean pods were abundant:

I don’t usually take photos of people that I see when out in the field.  But how could I resist this colorful red-hatted lady, kayaking and birding?  I think she might like this photo:

It was a lovely couple of days at Galveston Island State Park.  And I still have a bounty of photos to develop.  But no more, today.