Michael's Rediscovery of Nature

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.  

From the time I was around eight years old until I was twenty-nine, I was immersed in nature.  As a young boy, I spent almost all my time outside and was often in the woods exploring and catching everything I could get my hands on.  Somewhere around the 6th grade, it became a little more organized as my interest in snakes grew and I turned to books to learn more about them.  As I have said elsewhere, my interests grew to include all animals.  It was not a surprise that I became a biologist.  But at twenty-nine, I left my job as a biologist so I could provide better for my family.  (Being a biologist was great fun until payday).  Sadly, I immersed myself so deeply in my new occupation that I completely left all my interests in the outdoors behind.  I occasionally took a short venture in the woods or desert and I did do a little nature photography when the chance presented itself.  There are a lot of sad parts about this but the worst is that I quit adding to my nature education.  The years have shaved off some of the knowledge that I had and I find myself having to refresh myself with facts and information on broad areas of biology.  Luckily, I have retained a great deal as well. I still feel I have a good base.  I just think about how much more awareness and enjoyment I would have now if I had continued my education in the outdoors and kept adding to it through the years.  

Well, all I can do now is pick it back up and immerse myself in it once again.  The training with the Texas Master Naturalist (TMN) program has helped with that.  It has also been enlightening in many ways.  

This past weekend was the final weekend of the basic training for the new class of the Cypress Basin Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists.  Instead of our usual location at the Wildlife Management Area at Caddo Lake, we were on a private lake at the Wilkes Power Plant in Marion county.  It is a beautiful location and was such a great place for our excursions.