I've been out a few times over the last couple weeks snapping away with my camera and wanted to share some images. I've been having a great time working my backyard birds and so I sat out next to my feeders to see what I could get. My property is all secondary crosstimbers habitat located in Cleveland County. It was now 4 days after the snowstorm (13 Jan) and all traces of snow were gone. I have tons of images of American Goldfinches, Carolina Chickadees and Tufted Titmice on set-up perches and I was hoping for something different. As I quietly stepped out, I noticed a White-breasted Nuthatch perched on the sunny side of a blackjack oak (the actual tree my feeders hang off) and it appeared to be sleeping. I slowly walked up as close as a dared and fired away. It opened its eyes and flew down to one of the feeders and then back up to the tree. Over a couple hours, I got several shots of it as it maneuvered over the tree trunk. Another visitor was a male Red-bellied Woodpecker. I also got a goldfinch and a male House Finch since they decide to pose for me.
On 21 and 22 Jan, I drove around the Lexington WMA to see what I could find. I road-hunted both days and pulled into likely looking spots to first look for any subjects, then I'd do a little pishing to see if anything presented itself. This technique worked well, and I was able to photograph these species: Tufted Titmouse, Dark-eyed Junco, Spotted Towhee, Blue Jay, Song Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and Carolina Chickadee.
On 23 Jan, I was itching to go to the lakes up in OKC. I got a late start, so I wasn't able to get to the Zoo Lake, but instead I was at Lake Hefner at noon. I did my normal routine by starting in Stars and Stripes Park, Hobie Point, the Fishing Pier and then Marina. Along the entire edge of the lake was a thin area of ice that many birds were walking on and there were ice sculptures in the bushes along the edge where the waves splashed up and froze. I saw a lot of common birds including Ring-billed Gulls (groups sitting on the ice and one individual playing with an ice chip), and a couple groups of Gadwalls. One of these groups (4 individuals) were tipping-up to feed, and I tried to get all four of them tipped-up at once. At the inlet, I got the obligatory Great Blue Heron, and there was a nice male Northern Shoveler shoveling in the narrow waterway. A couple male Mallards did a photo bomb with him and until then, I didn't realize how much bigger the Mallards were. I then drove along Lakeshore Park, and was able to get a closer shot of an Eared Grebe. I've seen this species on many trips, but they seem very skittish. This time, I had noticed it from a distance, and once it dove, I quickly drove my vehicle to a spot where I hoped it would pop up. My guess was correct and I was able to get one single photo of it before it quickly swam away. It was now 1500 and my original plan was to then head to Lake Overholser, but unfortunately, clouds were moving in. So instead of driving to the other lake, I decided to head back to the Marina area and see what could be found. There were some good subjects (Lesser Scaup, Common Goldeneye, and Bufflehead), but it was just too dark to do them justice, so I headed home.
I read that they opened the road along Purcell City Lake (after taking down the Christmas lights), so on 27 Jan, I decided to see what I could find. On the way, I stopped at an oil access road near Lexington that has been good in the past and sure enough, a Carolina Chickadee, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and Tufted Titmouse all showed up for some shots. At the lake, there were tons of Ring-billed Gulls, and since I have a bunch of photos of those, I decided to skip them, that is until I pulled into a spot to look at a Killdeer and one gull stayed put on top of a post. So, I got shots of both the gull and Killdeer. On the opposite side of the road, I pished out a Field Sparrow for my best shots to date. It's sitting at the tip of a small cedar in perfect light and a nice blue sky. The next subject was an immature male Red-winged Blackbird, and then a surprise female Belted Kingfisher (photo-lifer). I've seen (and heard) this species many times, and I've chased several around, but this was the first time I've gotten photos. This species also seems pretty skittish to me. My final photo was of a huge Turkey Vulture and Black Vulture colony that roosts in Purcell. They perch in a large tree on the north side of Washington street and since I only had my 'big lens' with me, I had to try and find a spot to pull over to shoot it from a distance. There are also powerlines running every-which-way that I did not want to include in the frame, so my photo is only about half of the tree and birds. Even so, I counted almost 70 birds in the frame. I can't imagine the mess on the houses underneath that tree...
