Tag Archives: bird

November 26, 2020 · 6:17 am

Happy Thanksgiving

Whew! Is the coast all clear? Can I safely do my turkey trot? Yup, you and your rafter (aka flock) of wild turkey friends in Zion National Park have made it to Thanksgiving Day intact. (I’m keeping mum about the not-so-lucky turkeys).

However you celebrate Thanksgiving – if you even mark it at all – please have a safe day and think about all the things for which you are thankful. I’m thankful for my family, a roof over our heads, food to eat, my cameras (of course), and that we all continue to be healthy within this pandemic (hope I haven’t jinxed anything).

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Tagged as bird, holiday, photography, Thanksgiving, turkey, where the trails take you, wild turkey

November 25, 2020 · 7:00 am

Looking Past Tomorrow’s Thanksgiving

*A Wild Turkey In Zion National Park (Utah)*

On my next-to-last day in Zion National Park, I happened upon a flock (actually, it’s called a “rafter”) of wild turkeys. I first encountered them along the road through the park and thought that was pretty cool and I was tickled to have seen them then. Then, during a hike where I was crossing the bridge from Sand Bench Trail toward the Court of Patriarchs, I found a flock – er – rafter – of them hanging out around a park maintenance building. I had the best time walking along with them, photographing them. They weren’t the least bit afraid of me and that’s where I learned they can actually fly – enough to get up into a tree, at least. Wild turkeys, for all their grizzled faces, are pretty cool birds to watch, and their feathers are beautiful.

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Filed under 1DX, birds, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, holiday, National Parks, Photography, Thanksgiving, Zion National Park

Tagged as bird, Canon, holiday, National Park, photography, Rebecca Latson Photography, Thanksgiving, travel, turkey, where the trails take you, wild turkey, winter, Zion National Park

November 24, 2020 · 6:41 am

Birdy, Birdy In The Sky

*Brown Pelicans Flying Over Padre Island National Seashore, in Texas*

The birds you see in national parks and other protected lands are part and parcel of these places, fleshing out the story of your visit. You don’t need to stake out a site for your tripod and use a mega-telephoto lens to capture great images of the birds.

This month’s photo column in the National Parks Traveler is all about bird photography with whatever camera/lens you happen to have on you during your hike or stop at a park overlook.

To read my article, click on the image above.

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Filed under birds, National Parks, National Parks Traveler, Photography

Tagged as bird, birds, National Park, national parks, National Parks Traveler, photography, travel

November 8, 2020 · 8:13 am

The Bald Eagle

After a presidential election, what better photo to post than the symbol of American democracy, the bald eagle. As I post this image, I am listening to National Parks Traveler podcast episode #91, about bald eagles in Chesapeake Bay and how populations in the national parks around the Bay have a bit of a better chance of survival. It’s a good podcast, if you feel like listening. It’s about 41 minutes long, and you can download it to listen to later.

To listen to the podcast, click on the image above.

This image was of a bald eagle taking off from a snag in the Brooks River in Katmai National Park, in Alaska was captured with my Canon 1DX and rented 500mm lens.

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Filed under 1DX, birds, Canon, Canon 500mm f/4L IS II, Canon Lens, Katmai National Park, National Parks, National Parks Traveler, Photography, Podcast

Tagged as 1DX, 500mm, Alaska, American democracy, bald eagle, bird, Canon, eagle, Katmai National Park and Preserve, National Park, national parks, National Parks Traveler, photography, Podcast

March 6, 2020 · 9:08 am

It’s Fun Fact Friday 3-6-2020!

The scissor-tail flycatcher, aka Texas bird-of-paradise, can hover with its tail spread and make abrupt turns in midair. It’s numbers have declined by about 31% between 1966 and 2014.

I found this flycatcher in October, sitting pretty on the barb-wire fence at the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge back in 2013.

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Filed under 1DX, birds, Brazoria NWR, Canon, Fun Fact Friday, nature, Photography, Texas, Wildlife Refuge

Tagged as 1DX, bird, birding, Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge, Canon, flycatcher, Fun Fact Friday, national wildlife refuge, NWR, October, photography, scissor-tail, Texas, where the trails take you

November 28, 2019 · 7:52 am

Gobble, Gobble! Happy Thanksgiving!

Here’s to the one that got away and won’t be found on anybody’s dinner table 😉

For those of you who follow the tradition of Thanksgiving, it’s supposed to be a time of thinking about what you are thankful for in your life. It also is a time to enjoy the bounty of what the earth provides (aka lots of eating and snacking … and watching football).

I’m thankful for a gazillion things, such as my sister, having a roof over my head and food to eat and electricity and clean running water. I’m thankful for having moved back to a part of the U.S. that I love the most, and being back so close to the mountains that I’ve missed for the majority of my life. I’m also thankful for the invention of digital cameras and being able to own a few in order to capture beautiful / interesting images that tell a story and elicit emotion and share them with you all. I’m thankful for our national parks and hope nobody ever commercializes them (any more than they may already be). I could go on and on, but at least you know, I don’t take much for granted and try to find something good in every day.

As for the photo, this is a wild turkey that was roaming around with its flock (or whatever you call a group of wild turkeys) near a Park Service storage building along a trail near the Court of The Patriarchs. Those guys were not afraid of me at all. I should have been afraid of them because thtey were pretty darned big. I followed them around to get still images and video, and it was then that I learned they could fly. Well, from the ground up to a branch in a tree, which is where I photographed this guy (or gal). I also learned that they are very colorful and, despite their faces only a mother could love, are actually kinda pretty.

Happy Thanksgiving, Everybody!

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Filed under birds, Holidays, National Parks, nature, Photography, Thanksgiving, Travel, Zion National Park

Tagged as being thankful, bird, Canon, holiday, National Park, photography, Thanksgiving, travel, turkey, Utah, where the trails take you, wild turkey, Zion National Park

November 21, 2019 · 4:53 pm

Corporate Behavior

Even the smallest and/or prettiest of creatures can be territorial and exhibit more than just a little bit of visciousness in the daily fight for survival. Heaven knows I’ve experienced it within the human workplace, hence the sarcastic title.

I’ve been rescuing photos from a dying portable hard drive. The hummingbird images I captured between 2012 – 2014 are favorites of mine and they needed to be saved to another drive.

As a photographer, you can learn quite a bit about birds or other wildlife by simply watching and photographing them on a regular basis. During that span of years my mother and I hung out those hummingbird feeders in Texas, I would be over there every morning and/or evening to photograph these soft, tiny little birdies. The more I watched, the more I learned they aren’t quite as sweet as everybody might think. Luckily, this extended observation led to some very interesting photos.

Canon 1DX and 100-400mm lens

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Filed under 1DX, birds, Canon, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, Canon Lens, hummingbirds, Life, nature, Photography, Texas

Tagged as 100-400mm, 1DX, behavior, bird, birds, Canon, close up, hummingbird, hummingbirds, life, September, telephoto, where the trails take you

November 17, 2019 · 6:28 am

A Stormy Day At Cross Trails Pond

I’m up early because the inside of my cheek is killing me. I had a back molar implant put in this past Wednesday and my cheek got the brunt of some burring work on the cap and the upper back molar. Bleah. So, I can’t sleep. I’ll take an aspirin after I have something for breakfast later. Whenever I can’t sleep, I get up, turn on the laptop, and work on photos. I’m still (and will be for months, I’m sure) cleaning up my photo website and I happened upon this image in my Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge gallery. It was an awesome morning on that June day. Sometimes, going to the refuge was a hit or miss prospect. I either saw lots of birdlife, like here, or no birdlife. On this stormy morning, not only were there large numbers of egrets and spoon bills, but the clouds were awesomely dramatic. Out of all the images I took at the refuge, this photo numbers as one of my favorites.

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Filed under birds, Brazoria NWR, nature, Photography, Seasons, summer, Texas, Wildlife Refuge

Tagged as bird, birds, Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge, Brazoria NWR, clouds, dramatic, dramatic landscape, egret, June, national wildlife refuge, pond, spoonbill, storm, storm clouds, stormy, summer, Texas, water, where the trails take you

June 7, 2019 · 8:53 am

I Spy With My Little Eye …

I had reached the Washington Pass Overlook and was dying to get out to photograph the view and stretch my legs. So, I hefted a camera with a wide-angle lens and another camera with the 100-400mm lens both around my neck (I;m used to doing this from my past experience photographing weddings) and trod up the trail to the part of the view looking back down along the North Cascades Highway (opposite view from the previous posts). One of the first things that caught my eye, after taking in the view, was a little “knob” I saw on top of that second tree to your left. I couldn’t figure out if that was a tiny birdy or just a part of the tree, itself. When I looked through the telephoto lens, I saw that it was indeed a little bird. I have no idea what it is called (other than “bird”). Anybody know about birds in the West and Northwest?

Anyway, this is a good example of how being observant not only creates good photo ops, but also makes you a better photographer in general. I mean, how many other people standing up there even noticed there was this little bird waaaaay up on that tall tree?

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Filed under 1DX Mk II, 24-105mm, 5DS, birds, Canon, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, Canon Lens, Equipment, nature, North Cascades, Photography, Seasons, Spring, Travel, Washington State

Tagged as 100-400mm, 1DX Mk II, 24-105mm, 5DS, bird, Canon, day trip, highway, mountains, nature, North Cascades, North Cascades Highway, Rebecca Latson Photography, rebeccalatsonphotography, travel, trees, Washington, Washington Pass, Washington Pass Overlook, Washington State

March 12, 2019 · 9:10 am

Photographing the Grandness of Grand Teton National Park

A home where the bison roam, at Elk Ranch Flats, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

If you’ve never been to Grand Teton National Park, before, maybe you should put that on your next vacation plan. This national park was a part of my road trip itinerary during my move last summer, and I wrote an article about it, which the National Parks Traveler has published. Gives a new meaning to the word “Grand.”

To read the article, click on the photo above.

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Filed under Canon, Grand Teton National Park, National Parks, National Parks Traveler, Photography, Photography In The National Parks, Travel, Wyoming

Tagged as bird, Canon, dusky grouse, explore more, find your park, Grand Teton National Park, Grand Tetons, landscape, landscape photography, mountains, National Park, National Parks Traveler, Oxbow Bend, photography, Photography In The National Parks, Rebecca Latson Photography, rebeccalatsonphotography, scenery, signal mountain, Snake River, travel, wildlife, Wyoming