On the last evening of the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival, we drove ourselves to the South Padre Island mudflat where we met our tour group for photographing the sunset. We drove out onto the mudflat – trying to avoid puddles.

It was well before sunset, and I enjoyed the antics of a Reddish Egret in the late afternoon light. The bird seemed to be finding tidbits in the small pool. It was a windy afternoon which caused the head and neck feathers to move about.

I was using my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS) on a monopod (so I only had one thing to clean mud/sand from at the end of the evening). I kept trying to get a bird in flight flying across the sun…failed, but it was still fun trying. I always like to see the color change and the sun gets lower. The mosaic below is in the order the images were taken; click on any of them to see a larger version.

I made a movie of the actual setting of the sun!

We headed back to our hotel afterward…wanting an early evening since we had a last early morning field trip before we started home the next day.

Our first afternoon at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival was spent at the Laguna Seca Ranch doing songbird photography from a blind. We met our guide at a Love’s near the ranch and caravaned on better roads to get there and through the gate. We stopped at an area for facilities and to sign in…then went to the area where a blind was set up. There were folding chairs and we all had a space to look through the curtains at a small pool with enhancements to make more interesting photographs: logs, freshly cut branches with green leaves, a tree near the pool, a branch rigged to drip water into the pool from a few feet above the surface. The guide spread nut butter on the logs (out of direct line of sight). I used my Canon Powershot SX70-HS (bridge) and my monopod.

The first picture I took was while the guide was putting out the nut butter – a dragonfly on a nearby branch. It was pink! I think it was a Roseate Skimmer.

A green jay made an appearance.

And then there was a coach whip snake that came for a drink. I made a short video.

Over the course of the next few hours, I took a lot of northern cardinal pictures.

The queen butterflies frequently enjoyed the mud at the edge of the pool.

The pyrrhuloxia were around as well but not as numerous as the cardinals.

A couple of female red winged blackbirds stopped for a drink.

The black-crested titmouse was a new bird for me. They are only found in far south Texas. Hybrids of this bird and the tufted titmouse (the one I see in Missouri) are found in the San Antonio area.