Enemy approaches! Dive...dive...dive!!

Oh the trials of photographing birds! You know what I mean, right? You spot this beautiful bird, and you have an opportune moment to capture it in all its glory; a beautiful pose...yet, by the time you pull your camera up from your neck [I carry mine over my neck and on my shoulders most often when I'm walking the trails - no tripod] - by then, the bird has flown off or turned around showing you its backside. Or maybe, just maybe when you're on the shores of a lake, or the coast, or near a pond...you have your camera set, spot a great bird on the water's surface, begin to focus your lens...and BAM!! It dives into the water; disappearing?!! Are you with me?

While walking across the boardwalk and climbing the observation tower and climbing down again and walking a farther distance on the boardwalk, I spotted with my binoculars a bird couple quite a distance from where I was. I zoomed in to find them...snapped the shutter without focusing 'cause I know their antics quite well. Lo and behold as soon as the shutter release button was depressed, it's like the submarine sound "ahooooga" [or a klaxon] alerting them to make a dive !!

See?

...surfacing

On that particular day it was cloudy and drizzling a fine mist. We decided to close up shop and head home. But...another day, filled with sunshine and blue skies, Bud and I returned to the area and I was able to capture these. This time the grebe was quite a lot closer to the track and I was thrilled to see its beautiful red eyes in my viewfinder as I snapped away:

EARED GREBE

photos taken: Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Refuge - Port Aransas, Texas

Habitat Range:

TRIVIA

1. The Eared Grebe migrates only at night. Because of the length of its fall staging, its southward fall migration is the latest of any bird species in North America.
2. On cold, sunny mornings, the Eared Grebe, like some other grebe species, sunbathes by facing away from the sun and raising its rump, exposing dark underlying skin to light. This behavior may make the bird appear to have a distinctive "high-stern" profile.

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During the latter weeks of migration my sighting of the cinnamon teal was recorded!! It was a duck that was on my list of photographing. Only, perhaps because of the beautiful color of the male. The female, very similar to the other teals such as the blue winged/female mallard. For several days they were at the area. But, sadly they weren't very active when we arrived at different times of day. In other words, when we were there, they weren't out swimming; but taking a siesta! No matter, I was able to get 'up close and personal'...

CINNAMON TEAL

photos takend: Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Refuge - Port Aransas, Texas

Habitat Range:

TRIVIA

1. The female Cinnamon Teal often places her nest below matted, dead stems of vegetation so it is completely concealed on all sides and from above. She approaches the nest through tunnels in the vegetation.
2. The majority of cinnamon teal breed in the western United States near the Great Salt Lake, Malheur Basin, San Luis Valley and Cariboo-Chilcotin parklands.

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