March 3, 2020 - Went birding this morning at the Butterfly center in Mission with my Sophia. I just got commissioned for an additional 8 images for the Mcallen Hospital. They have already purchased 100 plus images from us for their first floor decorations. They are looking to decorate a section of the hospital that has no images on it. For this section of the hospital they want Rio Grande Valley, Texas songbirds, and I wanted to get them something new. I have been lacking images of Altamira orioles, and Audubon orioles, two, extremely beautiful Valley natives. Well the Altamira oriole is a native, the Audubon is a migrant species.

We chose the Butterfly center, because I knew they had Audubon orioles there, which is a harder to find species than the Altamira. I knew they had Altamiras there as well, so I could kill two birds with one stone, no pun intended, lol. So we went to try and snap some images of these beauties. Of course, while there, I was hoping to improve my catalog of other colorful song bird species, and the Butterfly center is pretty good for that. The usual suspects were there as well; Greenjays, cardinals, kiskadees, and a few others.

Altamira Oriole, one of the Rio Grande Valley’s stars. Such beautiful birds.

Of course when we left it was still a bit dark out, but as the morning wore on, I could tell the light was not going to get any better. Thankfully, it was a warm morning, but sadly very overcast skies, which made photography difficult. We did manage to snap a few images, but with the high ISO, the birds had to be close to capture enough light on them, so that the images were not noisy. When the light is tough, and your ISO is high, try having your subject really close, so your camera doesn’t have to work as hard to capture information. The light was enough for me to snap a couple that once I put them in post, I was happy with, but I would of loved more opportunities… and much better light.

Sharp Shined hawk. This raptor swooped down and tried to grab a bird in front of us. It missed then landed on a near by tree. We managed to snap a few proof of life shots of this predator, as he was seeking out a potential meal.

So, it was a tough morning. Even with being at a good bird feeder (It is well positioned, and really good for morning light), the skies did not help us today. We did have the Altamira show up, but the audubon oriole was a no show. To top off the frustrations, a sharp shined hawk showed up, and scared off all the birds. Normally I welcome the predatory birds in. I admit, I do love when they show up. But today was supposed to be all about the song birds, so our hawk made photography a bit difficult. So after a slow, frustrating few hours, we called it a day. Going back out tomorrow to see what we may find?