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One of the photo opportunities we were most interested in at this location was the vulture photo blind which had been constructed nearby. King Vultures are regularly seen here ad we hoped for the chance to get some shots. I have seen King Vultures on numerous trips to southern Mexico and Central and South America dating back to the late 70s, but most of my views were of birds soaring very high in the sky. The species is known to be shy of people and can difficult to get close to.

Our guide obtains pig heads from a slaughterhouse in the region when he has clients such as Dave and me who are interested. These heads are put out in the early morning and hopefully by 9 AM or so the Black Vultures will find them which may attract one or more Kings.

The hide or blind is constructed into the ground so that the photos are taken at more or less ground level. You are shooting through optical quality glass in windows in order to lessen the disturbance to the birds and from the bird side of the glass only a dull reflection is seen. It is an incredible piece of construction and was designed very well.

To make a long story short, during our morning in this blind we had hundreds of Black Vultures and 6 Kings! Three adults and other younger birds of various ages. I have over 400 nice images, just a few which are here. It was quite an experience to see this magnificent bird up close and personal. At one point an adult King Vulture was within 5 feet of us....I took some cell phone shots!

White Rock lake, Sunset Bay beach near opening to Reinhart branch
Both Of Them
They finally got close enough for a comparison shot. Wilson's phalaropes are a polyandry species. The females are larger & brighter. Females fight each other over males then the winner courts & defend their male mates, and they take several mates. The female selects a nest site, scrapes a little hollow in the dirt & lays 4 eggs. Then she leaves to court another male. The male she just deserted takes over. He pulls plants around to hide the nest and both broods the eggs & raises the chicks. The babies are able to feed themselves when they hatch but Dad continues to look out for them awhile. Like killdeer, he will do a "broken wing" dance to lure predators away from the young.

Taken on monthly Birding on Broadmeade group walk on Lake Creek Trail in Williamson County in northwest Austin.

Two small Blotched Water Snakes were hunting minnows in the creek near the third low water crossing. At first we wondered if this was one snake with two heads, but finally one head moved somewhere else.

@gcwarbler and I along with our spouses were standing on the deck of a friend's house in Hays Co., Texas, when we saw a Red-shouldered Hawk come up off the ground carrying a snake. As the Red-shouldered made its way toward a distant woodland, an adult Red-tailed Hawk came toward the Red-shouldered, probably wanting the snake. There were a few close passes in the air as the Red-tailed harassed the Red-shouldered, but the Red-shouldered was eventually able to get away to enjoy its meal. It was fun to watch the interaction!

This observation for the Red-shouldered Hawk; the Red-tailed Hawk posted separately.

I was talking to this guy and all of a sudden the second bobcat came out she chase a squirrel up in this tree in front of us but it didn't get it.... the squirrel wasn't to happy about the bobcat, so the bobcat gave up and it climbed back down

Genus: Batrachostomus
Species :mixtus Sharpe, 1892.
Common name : Bornean Frogmouth.
It is fomerly considered conspecific with B.poliolophus but lacks extensive white on underparts, male has a much darker crown and female more contrastingly rich rufous. Vocalizations yet to be analysed in depth. It is considered to be monotypic.

Another one of those "National Geographic" observations which we were lucky to have. We came around a corner of some rocks and found a lioness with three cubs late in the afternoon resting on a large flat rock. We spent an hour there until it was too dark to take any images. She was a very patient mother with these little ones crawling all over her, biting her tail and her ears, etc. It was very special to see!

Serengeti National Park,
Tanzania
24 October 2018

This series of images is another "National Geographic" moment that needs some explanation. The 11 folks on our photo Safari were divided among 4 safari vehicles...no more than 3 (plus the driver/guide) to a vehicle, so each photographer had access to each side of the vehicle. We were sometimes together, sometimes miles apart. Two of our vehicles spotted a distant Cheetah stalking 4 Grant's Gazelles. We could see the two vehicles about 1/4 mile away and we thought the Cheetah was perhaps headed toward us as the gazelles were moving toward us. Suddenly, from a long distance I saw the gazelles running fast though the tall grass and then I saw a cloud of dust. Three gazelles kept running but we did not see the 4th. The gazelles got 400-500 yards away then stopped to look back. The other vehicles told us the Cheetah had made a kill. When we got there the Cheetah had a small Grant's Gazelle by the throat while it still struggled a little. You could watch the Cheetah breathing heavily after its 5-8 second burst of speed to catch the gazelle. The Cheetah was a male and looked as if he needed a meal. We sat nearby for an hour as the Cheetah ate its fill. Just amazing to watch all this.

Serengeti National Park,
Tanzania
25 October 2018

http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Diopatra_cuprea/

http://animaldiversity.org/collections/contributors/jo_okeefe/Diopatra_cuprea_100_6693/

All observations made near the jetty at Nueces County Park.

The rest of the day was spent around Pena Blanca Lake. Most of us just went out solo to explore on our own and came back at night to set up the black lights. Lots of amazing stuff here!

Still working on the ID's for these...

Check out the journal entry for lots of better photos of many of these same species:
http://www.inaturalist.org/journal/sambiology/11501-southeast-arizona-inaturalist-is-a-community

The first 4 images are of a mature male. The last 6 images show a HY female with an aberrant pale bill. 4 or 5 migrant Townsend's Warblers were netted this date.

upupamartin and I have a close friend and colleague who lives in upper Madera Canyon in the Davis Mountains of west Texas at about 6300 ft elevation. He is a biologist and exceptional birder and naturalist as well as a bird bander with 40+ years experience. We spent about 24 hours on this property. This entire area is private and not open to the public.

After the first Two-tailed Swallowtail I had ever found in my yard yesterday:
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/7886659
two of them showed up today. Beautiful butterfly! This is near the eastern edge of their range. Note the Polistes species wasp in image 1....I guess it was curious about what the swallowtail had discovered.

It blended in with the flower so well I almost missed it. Looks sort of like a tie-dye design. Its wings were closed when I saw it. I gently touched it to see if it was alive. It did not move except it opened its wings partially.
This was the only one I could see. The other Blazing Stars did not have any on it that I could see.

This will be way overkill in regards to photos but this was a very exciting discovery for @upupamartin and me.

Elegant Tern
Thalasseus elegans
North Padre Island,
Kleberg Co., Texas
18 July 2017

Details: Martin Reid @upupamartin and I decided to make a day trip to the Corpus Christi area to look for dragonflies. We spent some time in Kingsville as well as Corpus Christi and by 1 PM it was so hot that our enthusiasm for continuing to walk in the sun and heat was waning (or at least my enthusiasm was waning!) so we decided to do a little beach driving to see what birds the late summer might be returning to the Texas coast before we had to drive home to San Antonio and Austin. We drove down to Padre Island National Seashore and checked out Bird Island Basin and Malaquite Beach and noted many flocks of hundreds of Black Terns as well as Least Terns, Royals, and the other expected Texas coast species of late July. At about 3:30 PM we drove north on the beach heading north toward the Bob Hall Pier and left the national seashore. We were about 3/4 mile north of the national seashore boundary when we noted a juvenile Royal Tern pestering an adult so I thought I’d try to get a few shots of this interaction. I turned the front of my vehicle toward the surf so I could take some shots out the driver’s window with the sun more or less from behind but still quite high overhead. As I am taking the shots of the two Royals:
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/7118108
something in the background caught my eye. There was another tern with a very long, very slender, and very bright orange/red bill with a full black shaggy crest. I thought to myself that it looked like an Elegant Tern, but then thought to myself…this is Texas, that is normally a Pacific coast bird. As I am still looking through my camera I saw a second bird that looked like an Elegant Tern. Then both birds started preening and the bills were no longer visible. I told Martin that I think there are two Elegant Terns here. Martin was also looking but at the moment the birds had their bills hidden while preening. The two suspect terns were physically smaller than Royals, perhaps the size of Sandwich Terns or a little larger by direct comparison. Martin said something to the effect of “Are you sure?” and at that moment I started to doubt what I had seen, but then one of the terns picked its bill up and I said rather emphatically “Those are Elegant Terns!”. Martin said something like “uh…yes, yes yes!” or words to that effect. We started taking photos, and in the end together we likely shot 600+ images of these birds. We were with the birds for just over an hour and 15 minutes. The information on these birds was posted to various bird alerts by Sheridan Coffey, Martin’s wife, and we sent her an image or two from the back viewer on the camera. We called several people, but most were too far away to get to our location the same afternoon. Both Mel Cooksey and Jon McIntyre got to us within about 45 minutes and were both able to see and photograph the birds extensively. Jon @mako252 has some shots on iNat at:
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/7110585

Elegant Tern has six previous records for Texas, so this should be the 7th.

Description: These were medium to large terns, perhaps slightly larger than adjacent Sandwich Terns. They seemed to be ca. 80% the size and bulk of adjacent Royal Terns; but obviously smaller. One of the Elegant Terns was still in mostly breeding plumage with more or less a full black, shaggy crest. There were a few white spots showing up on the forehead. The second Elegant Tern had a mostly white fore crown but still displayed a shaggy crest. Their bills were bright red/orange, as long or longer than Royal Terns, but very thin and almost slightly de-curved looking. Refer to the images for more information. Martin and I both have seen many Elegant Terns in California, Mexico and various South America locations so we have some experience with the ID of the species.

Image 1: shows the adult and juv. Royal Tern I was photographing for:
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/7118108
and in the center of the shot you can see what caught my eye…an Elegant Tern.
Image 2: Elegant Tern with Sandwich and Black Terns
Image 3: Good view of bill shape and structure of one of the Elegant Terns
Image 4: Elegant Tern in center
Image 5, 6: Two Royal Terns in front, Elegant in rear
Image 7, 8: both Elegant Terns
Image 9, 10: side by side comparison of the bills of a Royal Tern and an Elegant Tern
Image 11: Elegant Tern
Image 12: Elegant Tern in front on Royal Tern. Even though the Elegant is closer to the camera, note the larger size and bulk of the Royal.
Image 13, 14: Two Elegants and two Royals
Image 15: both Elegant Terns
Image 16: one Elegant Tern
Image 17, 18: wing stretch by an Elegant Tern near two Laughing Gulls
Image 19-26: Elegant Tern bathing

male

@mikef451 and I made a short visit to Gonzales, Texas as well as an area west of Luling, Texas this morning and found a few dragonflies. Mike will be posting more shots of these and some species I did not photograph. Fun morning and only up to 95 degrees by 11 AM….cool front I guess.

I was waiting for a bus in a village near Bangalore when I saw something like a 2 headed Velvet Ant moving very fast on the ground. Took a closer look and realized it was very beautiful spider !!! The front pair of legs had beautiful velvet like tufts which it held out with pride while moving about.

Now the harsh reality set in. The bus i was waiting for would reach any minute. If i miss it, i would have to wait for at least 3 hours for the next one. With this in mind I quickly got my camera out and started photographing this fast little spider from every angle possible. Initially i thought it was a Salticidae. Eye arrangement which i observed in the zoomed in picture proved me wrong.

This spider was a nightmare to photograph. Continuously moving in an erratic manner and turning away from the direction of the camera. I was on the ground struggling for a satisfactory shot when an audience started gathering around me.

I had to take the Spider in my hand so that it wouldn't escape among the many pairs of legs all around me :-D

I had to answer all the curious questions from the watching audience while holding my breath, trying to get the focus right and frame well.

i had to make sure the spider didn't escape among the bushes in a split second while i was reviewing a shot. (Not answering them would be considered rude and I didn't want that).

After a few minutes of epic struggle with this beautiful creature the bus arrived. The spider was now safely among the grass and I clumsily boarded the bus with my tripod in one hand , camera in the other and a half open bag on my back :-D

The bus journey turned into a Q&A session. The interested students and local people taking a closer look at the pictures, asking all kinda questions, narrating their version of spider stories etc.

This is a high ISO shot, didn't have time to set up the lighting.... Not much info is available about this spider, its behavior, feeding and breeding habits.

Any info would be appreciated.

Spider on Steroids : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feXAaGfrrEg

Close-up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9exsBvhZCCo