Re: What's in YOUR backyard? (photos from the desert)

Bill Hilton wrote: 
This newsgroup seems a bit dead at the moment so I thought I'd pass
along this URL and maybe prod some others into posting images from
their areas ... in June 2004 my wife and I got new digital cameras a
couple of weeks before a trip to Alaska's Pribilof Islands, where we
were planning on photographing puffins and other sea birds.  Since one
of the best ways to screw up a trip is to take a new camera you are
unfamiliar with we decided to practice a bit on the local fauna before
heading north.

By becoming members of a local Botanical Garden we could get dawn
access twice a week so we joined and lugged our new cameras and 500 mm
lenses down there to get some practice ... by then it was pretty much
the end of the nesting season and AM temps were rapidly approaching 105
F but we managed to get some decent bird images and decided to do it
again in 2005, starting much earlier in the spring.  By the time we
were finished (when it was 110F by 8 AM and few creatures stirred) I
think we actually got better images from our extended "backyard" than
we did in Alaska (though no puffins :).

The web site link below has some images from those early AM trips,
which usually lasted from 6-8 AM ... we didn't shoot at zoos or
aviaries or over feeders, just walked carefully around desert gardens
and took pot-luck on whatever wild critters came along, mainly birds
but also snakes and tortoises and balls of fur ... we also found
another spot about 20 minutes from home, where we shot the burrowing
owls frames ... so all of these images were taken a few minutes drive
from home, with the exception of the 'hummingbird-in-flight' shots
taken in Santa Fe, NM in July 2005 over the course of one afternoon and
one morning.

Hope you like these shots ... and what's in YOUR backyard that you
would care to share?

http://members.aol.com/bhilton665/desert/

Bill



I caught this article just this morning...


Birds take to city life at sanctuary
------------------------------------

PHARR, Texas – Allen Williams loves his solitude, but he loves company, too. And he finds both on his 2 1/2-acre refuge in the middle of Pharr, in the Rio Grande Valley. The bird lover and professional landscaper created a wildlife sanctuary in his back yard.

Birdwatchers travel from all over the nation to sit in Allen Williams' back yard in Pharr, Texas, and watch for migratory birds to perch in the trees and bushes.

Allen planted 55 species of trees, shrubs and plants, put in waterfalls and sprinklers, plus food sources.

The lower Rio Grande Valley is a major migratory flyway, but would birds stop here, just blocks from downtown, as Allen hoped?

Yes! In 1992, a slate-throated redstart landed – a first for this part of the country. Cedar waxwings were spotted.

In 2004, a Central American species, the black-headed nightingale thrush, came calling. It was the first ever spotted in the United States and was way north of its usual migration stop. When word of the sighting hit the Internet, Allen got calls from across the country. Soon his back yard was filled with birdwatchers. It's been a refuge for birds and humans ever since.

"My wife gets a little tired of the visitors, but for the most part, they've been respectful," Allen says.

Migratory warblers and robins, even hawks, are fairly common sights in the yard, while rabbits, lizards and an occasional opossum scamper along the ground.

Ruth Hoyt, a renowned professional wildlife photographer, stops at Allen's yard monthly. Sometimes, she comes alone with her cameras; other times, photography students accompany her.

"The habitat, amount of ground cover and canopy are conducive to attracting birds," Ruth says. She has captured many of Allen's rare species on film.

The busiest months at Allen's sanctuary are October and April, but there's usually something to see year round. It's free, though he asks for a $10 donation to maintain the grounds.

A rare blue mockingbird stops by on occasion, and you just never know who else you'll run into.

"We have people who come here from around the world," says Allen.

So migratory birds are watching migratory folks (and vice versa) in one bird lover's back yard, in the middle of a city.


--
jer
email reply - I am not a 'ten'

.

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