East Texas Naturalist Blog

From the beginning of this blog I have referred to myself as a "former" biologist.  I may or may not edit the places that say this for my status has somewhat changed.  I have been doing some consulting for a couple of land owners as a biologist.  In a minor way that changes my status from "former" to "current".  Well, I think that is true even if, as in these cases, I am doing this as an unpaid service.  It is still biological work.  

Actually, what I have been doing is making some biological surveys of two tracks of mixed hardwood forest in Upshure county.  The land owners want an idea of what animals are found on their property and some idea of the size of the populations.  In particular, they want to know about deer, hogs, coyotes, and beaver. 

Both of these surveys are rather informal.  They just want a general idea.  That is a whole different process than doing an actual population study.

You can take good pictures with just about any decent camera but having nice equipment makes the process easier, adds more options, and generally produces better results.

I started off with a fixed lens Petri 35mm film camera, then later moved to a Asahi (Pentax) Spotmatic.  With both of those I was able to take nice pictures of people and scenic landscapes.  I tried very little real nature photography.  Neither camera was really suited to any kind of closeup work.  I added a 300mm lens which helped with some types of nature shots.  But it wasn't until many years later when circumstances changed and I was able to afford much better equipment and accessories.  My interest in photography and the results of my efforts made a major leap forward. 

Then after I got busy with so many other things (work), I slowly got rid of all that equipment.  

While Googling for some information tonight, I got sidetracked and searched for an old "friend".  Well, it is a lizard, but I am sure you know what I mean.  Anyway, I discovered a link to an old paper that I co-authored years ago.

It was fun to see the old paper again and to remember how we traveled to Laredo in the heat of summer to collect some specimen of Laredo Striped Whiptail lizards, Cnemidophorus laredoensis, for the study.  

Trying to catch these lizards is not easy under any circumstances.  They are extremely fast and evasive and the hotter it is they more fired up they are.  On the day we spent in Laredo collecting them, it was extremely hot and very humid.  

I recently bought a macro ring flash for my cameras.  Naturally I have been playing with it.

I just wanted to share this picture that I took with it.  

My bird feeders have been sort of a neutral zone all Spring.  There has been a wide variety of birds frequenting them and there have been very few skirmishes.  Not at all like the hummingbird feeders which are the scene of daily wars between the various hummers.  The seed and suet feeders have been relatively peaceful.  Of course, there have been some issues.  Some as simple as the bigger birds chase off the smaller birds, but even that was relatively calm.  I have not seen much really aggresive behavior.

That all changed when the first mockingbird fledgling appeared.  All at once the parent mockingbirds have claimed the feeders.  No other birds are allowed to feed without being harassed.  That includes the seed feeders which the mockingbirds don't use.  Any chickadee or titmouse that dares to try to feed will get a fast rush from one of the parent mockingbirds.  The rush is like a bullet.  It is the fastest flight I have seen by them at any other time.   The suet feeders, which the mockingbirds do use, are in the middle of the seed feeders but they don't care if the other birds are on the seed feeders or the suet feeders, the offending birds are chased away.

Their viligance is not continuous.  There are long periods of time when the mockingbirds are not in sight.  So the feeders are still available for most of the day, but when the mockingbirds return, they stay at least a few minutes chasing the other birds away. Once the other birds quit trying to feed the mockingbirds fly off.  The mockingbirds are there fairly constantly during early morning feeding times and near dusk. Inbetween running the other birds off, they spend a fair amount of time feeding the fledglings.  The fledglings fly to the parents and bob their heads up and down while making a soft screeching sound as they wait for the parent to drop some food into their mouths.