West Texas Chihuauhuan Raven fest

-
Here are two of about a thousand Chihuahuan Ravens I saw as I drove through West Texas where these birds congregate for the winter. I usually see large loose flocks that play on rising thermals but the weather was foggy and drizzly so no thermals for them to ride. SeEtta

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Neal's Lodges on the Frio River

-
Image
I had arranged to meet Bob Rasa, who leads tours around the famous Neal's Lodges on the Frio River in Concan, TX. Bob graciously offered to work me in to his schedule and I spent the day benefiting from his experience with the birds in this area. We birded around Neal's Lodges in the morning which is where I photographed this Black-throated Sparrow.
I also saw this Long-billed Thrasher at the Neal's. This species has a fairly limited range, mostly in Mexico but coming into south and central Texas. SeEtta
Read more

Diving Belted Kingfisher

-
Image
I was very pleased to get the above photo of a Belted Kingfisher as it dove towards a pond to get a fish. Fortunately the light was good so I was able to take this as a very high speed pic, a setting I was already using since the kingfisher was a good 75 feet away. I hid in my car behind some foliage, some of which got in the view but is out of focus, in order to avoid flushing the bird. SeEtta
Read more

Hybrid Glossy X White-faced Ibis

-
Image
Though the facial skin on this ibis is blue as found on Glossy Ibis, I noticed while looking at it in my spotting scope that the bare skin went around the back of the eye-a characteristic of White-faced Ibis.
Also, depending on the light and the angle of the bird to me, I could see that the eye was reddish and not the dark brown found on Glossy Ibis.
Upon further examination of my photos I could see a plum coloration to the bare skin located between the lines forming the border of the facial skin, a characteristic of a hybrid plegadis as identified by Arterburn and Grzybowski in 'Hybridization Between Glossy and White-faced Ibis'. I also saw two ibis that looked like pure Glossy Ibis but could not get photos of reasonable quality as they were both feeding actively so moving in and out of the large flock. SeEtta
Read more