Yellow Warblers - Frontera Audubon Center, TX - Sept. 2017

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Yellow Warbler - Frontera Audubon Center, TX - Sept. 2017

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One of the highlights of my recent photography outing in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas was an encounter with a couple of cooperative Yellow Warblers at the Frontera Audubon Center in Weslaco. Frontera Audubon is 15-acre nature preserve with dirt trails through the native habitats of thornscrub, wetlands, and butterfly gardens. There are elevated boardwalks over the wetlands. 

Yellow Warbler - Frontera Audubon Center, TX - Sept. 2017

When on foot, stealth is not a strong point of my birding activities. Even without my hearing aids, I can hear myself walking down a trail. But these warblers were so engaged in their feeding activity, they seemed oblivious to my presence and I was able to get a number of shots in which the birds were stationary and not obscured by the dense foliage. 

Yellow Warbler - Frontera Audubon Center, TX - Sept. 2017

The skies were totally overcast for most of the morning and the light level was low. My efforts to reduce the noise in the images also reduced the detail somewhat, but I was very happy to have the opportunity to get these close-up shots of the warblers.

Yellow Warbler - Frontera Audubon Center, TX - Sept. 2017

Yellow Warbler - Frontera Audubon Center, TX - Sept. 2017

Yellow Warbler - Frontera Audubon Center, TX - Sept. 2017

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David Sparks

I retired in 2005 after 40 years of research and teaching at the University of Alabama in Birmingham (24 years), the University of Pennsylvania (8 years) and the Baylor College of Medicine (8 years). Photography is my retirement hobby.

Nature photography, especially bird photography, combines a number of things that I really enjoy: bird-watching, being outdoors, photography, travel, messing about with computers, and learning new skills and concepts.  I now spend much of my time engaged in these activities.

David Sibley in the preface to The Sibley Guide to Birds wrote "Birds are beautiful, in spectacular as well as subtle ways; their colors, shapes, actions, and sounds are among the most aesthetically pleasing in nature."  My goal is to acquire images that capture the beauty and uniqueness of selected species as well as images that highlight the engaging behaviors the birds exhibit.