Male ruby throated hummingbird (Image) Female ruby throated hummingbird just after lift off (Image) Female ruby throated hummingbird getting some nectar (Image) Pyrrhuloxia (The desert cardinal) (Image) And a whole bunch of Golden Fronted Woodpeckers (Image) (Image) (Image) (Image) (Image) (Image) And this last one is a juvenile that came by one of the blinds I was stationed at while visiting the Martin Refuge. (Image) The hummingbirds are from the wilds of my backyard here in N. ...

The original is if you are interested. All of these are from the Lower Rio Grande Valley in far south Texas. I'll start with a a very shy and secretive bird, the yellow billed cuckoo which is actually related to the Groove Billed Ani in the original thread. (Image) Here is the ubiquitous Northern Mockingbird after taking a dip in a small water feature. (Image) Here are some images of a very photogenic curve billed thrasher. I love the eyes. (Image) (Image) (Image) Following is a le...

I have spent the better part of the summer outside and traveling even with these high gas prices to try to find some wildlife that I have never seen or just wanted to photograph again. Having said that, these first photos are from my backyard. Hummingbird migration is really picking up so I have been able to find a few more hummingbirds now than all year. These are three ruby throated hummingbirds, probably females or young juveniles. (Image) (Image) (Image) Now down to far south Texas....

Cross-posted in Lounge I spent three weeks of June mostly on the road visiting family and different wildlife areas. One of my favorite places to shoot is down in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. I have a ton of new shots that I am trying to process before getting back to work, but I will start with some doves. There are quite a few different varieties that occur in the USA with the mourning dove being the most common. (Image) Here are some others that all take up residence in the Valley of T...

I am not sure if I have posted these here. I do not think I have, but if I have I apologize in advance. Anyhow, I am fortunate to have Mississippi Kites return every summer to nest. They usually come in by late April and leave by late August to spend the rest of the year in South America primarily. They are beautiful buoyant raptors that fly much like falcons but no where near as muscular. They are insect feeders primarily but will take a small reptile, bird or mammal every so often. They ...

My father and I have always had a rocky relationship. I took care of him during his drunken tirades as a teenager, after I had suffered disappointment after disappointment from him as a drunk an all around poor father. I watered down his JD as a kid so he wouldn't get so stinkin' drunk in the evenings. I caught him cheating on my mother when she was out of town when I was in college. I found him in our pool naked with this woman. Fun times, eh? At that moment, I had it out with him. I let...

My next door neighbor just received a phone call from Ft. Campbell. His son, a private in the Army, was on patrol in a Humvee in Iraq, we do not know where, when a roadside bomb shredded the humvee. He has multiple fractures in one leg, a broken arm and a possible broken vertabrae. He is in transition to Germany. Everything is very preliminary, but I knew this kid. He used to mow my lawn when I was sick a few years back. He graduated high school, wandered around unsure about what to do wit...

The first ones are of an upland sandpiper. What is amazing about these birds are that they are just passing through my area after starting their spring migration in Argentina. I found them in the pastures around my area. (Image) (Image) This next set is of different rufous crowned sparrows, one of the many native species that are losing habitat at a phenomenal rate. (Image) (Image) (Image) Here is a very common bird, in no danger whatsoever, but it is Texas variety of the common tufted ...

Here's a bit of a summary of what I have been posting over in the Photo Forum. I know some here like the boids so.... Downy woodpecker (Image) Red Bellied Woodpecker (Image) (Image) Loggerhead Shrike (Image) (Image) Eastern Bluebird (Image) Carolina Wren (Image) Bewick's Wren (Image) Great Egret with breeding plumage (Image) (Image) Harris's Sparrow (Image) Lark Sparrow (Image) (Image) Savannah Sparrow (Image) Next week I hope to be able to show you pics of a golden cheeked warbl...

He had three great albums that best could be classified as alt-rap, hip-hop with a jazz influence especially with the last two. Anyhow, I used to frequent a locally owned indie record store in the mid to late 80s where he worked before "making it." Then after his third album he dropped off the face of the Earth. While listening to one of his albums a few minutes ago, I decided to google his name and I found a very recent article from the Dallas Observer. Apparently he is DJing jazz music now ...

I was perusing through the Texas Observer on the web when I noticed this article. I have since noticed that it made Alter Net too. That is good because it needs exposure. Anyhow, it is about the border wall and how illogically this is being planned. First, let me categorically state that I feel that the fact that it is even being built is illogical since the problem lies with major corps, and some mom and pop organizations, that continue to offer employment to them, the undocumented worker, ...

Source: AlterNet In the first six years of the Clinton administration, 13.7 million jobs were created. In the same period, under Bush, only 3.7 million jobs were created. Barely keeping up with population growth, if that. (Source: Fox News) Now let us look at median income. That's as opposed to average income (If Bill Gates walks into a bar with 10 people, the average income of everyone in the room goes up by $17,5000,000. But the median income just moves up half a notch, from between the fift...

These next few are from the Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi, Texas. River otter (Image) (Image) This guy was just adorable! Of course we saw dolphins there as well. We saw them below water... (Image) We saw them above water... (Image) (Image) (Image) And in the water. (Image) (Image) Heck we even saw them in the wild near Copano Bay, Fulton, Texas. (Image) We also ran into two alligators. This one was trying to hide. (Image) This one decided to come on out to sun. I head...

I don't always use a long lens. Thanks to my daughter who first saw these frogs, I was able to capture some images of an American Green Tree Frog at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. They liked the reeds and tall plants in the marshy areas of the refuge. I used my macro lens for these shots. I "stopped up" to close the lens quite a bit to increase my DOF and used a flash to compensate for the lack of ambient light getting through the lens. (Image) (Image) (Image) (Image) My wife took ...

I chartered a boat to take us to see the whoopers which are not easily seen from the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge proper. For photography the company I used was fantastic! He is a small operator out of Rockport; not one of the large Whooping Crane touring companies. He is much more flexible and really tried to get me in a good position for the photography. He had a shallow draft boat that allowed him to get where the larger boats could not. I have narrowed down my photos to about 20 def...

I am certainly an advocate for wildlife and the environment. In fact for Thanksgiving, I took my family to the see the critically endangered whooping cranes of Aransas NWR, the only truly wild flock left in the world. Here is one of the pictures I took of them. (Image) I find the following absolutely disgusting. This administration, no surprise to us, cares nothing for people, land or wild animal. Are these people mentally ill? Why will they not do the right thing? Sure, some might say...

His words state exactly how I feel. It's all about the cheap labor conservatives! So now comes the con -- the dishonest argument over illegal immigration trying to divert our ire away from the corporate profiteers, outsourcers, wage cutters and foreclosers that buy influence -- and protection -- in Washington. Republicans like Rep. Tom Tancredo (Colo.) are demanding the government cut off public services for undocumented workers, build a barrier at the Mexican border and force employers to...

I am at a loss. If the dems will not stand up and fight for the environment as Al Gore is trying to do, who will? We really need to show support in the form of incentives to help this industry become more available to more people. The corporatocracy has gotten to Reid and Pelosi apparently. I really hope they do not do this. Last Thursday, Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid said that they would jettison the renewable energy provisions in both the House and Senate versions of t...

costs skyrocket. Well, all I have to say is this report right here doesn't help. It disgusts me and just shows you how elitist some think they are and it further disgusts me that some would cater to them like supplicants to a king. "Sorry I can't serve the needy. It's my tee time." "Wait, who are you?" "How much do you make" "I'm sorry. I'll be right there." (Link) (CBS 11 News) DALLAS A CBS 11 investigation uncovers how the rich and famous are getting VIP treatment at Dallas' UT South...

This is not about immigration. It is about racial profiling and racism. I know that many here at DU do not support the plight of undocumented immigrants. Many, perhaps only some, but my perception is many, seem to think that they are burdening the school system, the health care system and whatnot. However, this post is really not an immigration post. It is in fact about rampant racism. The fact is what we have occurring is an orchestrated and state supported attempt to target a certain rac...

automaker friends? I know the answer. My question is rhetorical, but seriously, when is our government going to say that something needs to be done to protect first our country from rampant pollution and then be a world leader in this respect? It is very frustrating. I watch as pristine lands are taken over for possible drilling. Personally, where I live in Texas, then Governor Shrub, undid what the Democratic Governor, Ann Richards, had put in place forcing certain industries in Texas to...

These are just a bunch of unrelated photos.... I'll start with something small. Up close with a ruby throated hummingbird in a hackberry tree (from the same series from last week but different photo) (Image) A little further out but this perched in a willow tree. (Image) A small scissor tailed flycatcher. These will be migrating south soon, but they are still around. (Image) Continuing with the small theme, look into this toad's eye. (Image) With all the rain we had this summer there are...

:eyes: The article says that most, if not all of these sites, could be cleaned with relatively cost-effective measures. Sumqayit in Azerbaijan gained the dubious distinction this week of being added to Blacksmith Institute's top 10 list of the world's most polluted sites. Yet another heir to the toxic legacy of Soviet industry, the city of 275,000 souls bears heavy metal, oil and chemical contamination from its days as a center of chemical production. As a result, local Azeris suffer canc...

My family and I went down to visit friends at a lake near Corsicana, Texas. Our friends know that I like to bird with my camera so they suggested I take their kayak and poke around the rather isolated coves in the lake. They didn't realize my camera equipment was so extensive, but ignoring the better part of reason, I loaded up my equipment in a trash bag and took off in the kayak. There were tons of forster's terns, cattle egrets, black vultures, great egrets, red tailed hawks, but I mainly ...

Source: Truth Dig The Next Quagmire By Chris Hedges The most effective diplomats, like the most effective intelligence officers and foreign correspondents, possess empathy. They have the intellectual, cultural and linguistic literacy to get inside the heads of those they must analyze or cover. They know the vast array of historical, religious, economic and cultural antecedents that go into making up decisions and reactions. And because of this—endowed with the ability to communicate and mor...

and I do not automatically oppose those that say they are deeply religious. I respect a person's wish to believe in God, Buddha or the FSM. But this is just ridiculous. How difficult is it for people to understand why there should be a fundamental separation of church and state? How is a state or federal government going to adequately serve all of its citizens who, in its totality, are not all Christians when we are continually bombarded with crap legislation like the one that was recently p...

X-posted in Lounge The deer have been quite active lately. We have had a very wet summer here in Texas. The grasses are lush so food is plentiful. These are wild white tailed deer that I photographed at the . The deer are not part of the supported wildlife there. They are a native wild species. Buck (Image) A different buck resting in the grass. (Image) Fawn (Image) Mom and fawn (Image) Also, in my area of North Texas, I have found a colony of Mississippi Kites that spending the...

I had the pleasure of meeting Jim Cummins 7 years ago. He is a very down to earth researcher that speaks in laymen's terms when discussing educational jargon. As my background is in second language learning, I have read much of what he has to say, and I believe he is spot on as he is here. Bilingual and English learners are now part of the accountability map. "That’s the good news. ...That’s the end of the good news." On the negative side, he lamented: • standardized tests dominate curri...

Over June and July I have been lucky enough to find a few cottontails and jackrabbits comfortable enough to let me photograph them in the wild. The first one I found in Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. The comp is not that great but he moved soon after this so I did not get a another chance to recompose the shot. (Image) This is the shot I took of him just before the one above. The comp is a bit better but I think his face is a bit OOF. (Image) This next cottontail I actually...

Man, if only I could just quit my job and travel the world taking wildlife pictures. Oh well, there is the weekend. :) Brown pelicans perching (Image) (Image) Brown pelicans flying (Image) Roseate Spoonbill that I watched over a four day period. It was pretty shy and did not give me many opportunities for good shots. (Image) (Image) (Image) (Image) (Image) (Image) (Image) And lastly, a baby killdeer that was in the wetlands making all sorts of noise with mom nearby. (Image) ...