7:30 AM - A quick morning drive through LaVentana before breakfast and leaving with the family for outlet shopping in San Marcos. At one house that has an auto-feeder, 15-20 deer are gathered, mostly does and fawns. 

7:50 AM, a drive through the hill country with my daughter. Lots of bucks chasing does; lots of photos! A bright blue sky and orange rays of sunshine; 40 degrees. I love Texas! 

​8:00 PM – closing the day on a walk with my stepfather. Dark. Beautiful, bright stars in the sky. There is so little light pollution out here away from the city. On our way back, the coyotes are heard howling in the distance… lots of coyotes in chorus. The neighbors dogs bark in response. 

Sunday, 3:17 PM - Thursday will be a truly very happy Thanksgiving for these Wild Turkeys! They are quite thankful to be free roaming at Jacob's Well in Wimberly, Texas instead of in a freezer at Sam's Club waiting to be cooked and served! ​

​Normally, I’m not ashamed to quote the Bible. Since I gave my life to Jesus in 1993, I’ve had the regular habit of witnessing to friends, coworkers, door-to-door and street preaching at crowded University of Georgia football games. Because of what Jesus has done for me, I am not ashamed of the gospel. 

​However, there is one book of the Bible I may be a bit ashamed to openly declare. Not because I fear reproach, but because it makes me a little bashful! The Song of Solomon is a beautiful book of poetry describing the exchanges between two young lovers. There is enough poetic romance there to make anyone blush! But through this wonderful poem, God expresses His love for His creation.

​God’s love for His creation is revealed in the poem's expression of the beauty of nature; in the turning of the seasons which inspired these young lovers. “For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; the fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.” (2:10-13)

​It is clear that God loves His creation, and His intent is that we enjoy it as well.  Yes, it is true, as Christians we are not living for this world, but the next. But while here, God wants us enjoy and appreciate the beauty that is found here, and to give glory to our Creator.

Back in Texas! With my parents talking of moving back to Georgia, this could very well be my last Texas trip. That makes me sad. My last Salt Lick BBQ; my last evening walks in the cool, fall Hill Country; my last relaxing Thanksgiving looking over the longhorn pastures; my last cruises by car and by bike looking for the big bucks. I wish I had bought the 600mm telephoto lens before coming on this trip.
​
We arrive in Texas at 5:00 PM. My parents have left for church and I have left on a bike with my camera. I find a buck chasing a doe up toward my mother’s house, but I’m too slow to photograph. Riding further there isn’t much else this first evening than a Kestrel on a wire and a few does here and there. 

Friday, 8:07 AM – Loud splashes reverberate off the water; large ripples disturb the surface of the pond! An animal twists and bobs in the water, struggling to stay afloat. It is the sight and sound of a struggle. But what is it? From a distance I can’t tell. It seems too violent to be one of the beaver simply smacking his tail on the water.
​
Raising my telephoto lens I get a first glimpse... it's a hawk flailing in the water. Halfway underwater… now mostly submerged… now turning away from me… now spinning towards me… struggling to lift off out of the water… struggling to make it to the bank. Why would a hawk be in a pond? And how the heck could a hawk drown? 

Wait a minute… there is something in its sharp talons; something struggling for life, taking its last gasps of air. As the prey loses the struggle and expires, the hawk is still struggling to pull it from the water; to drag it up on the bank. A big catfish? No, it looks like a duck; perhaps it is one of the recently arrived Mergansers?

I sit and watch as the hawk slowly manages to pull his quarry up on the leaf-laden bank of the pond. Pull… rest… pull… rest. Now I notice the repeated, mournful, alarmed ‘ooh-eee’ whistle from the far side of the water. After nearly 10 minutes of toil, the hawk is able, foot by foot, to drag his prey several yards up underneath a Water Oak standing near the water’s edge. He sits upon his catch, wet and exhausted.

​Now is my chance to sneak in closer. He is not going to leave his hard fought for breakfast and allows me some close up photos. He is reluctant to leave, having struggled so hard for this prize. I go in for a closer look at his catch... a now deceased, but beautifully colored, male Wood Duck. The ruffled feathers, a deep talon puncture on his cheek, the distant glaze in his eye... all signs of his struggle.

As I press in a little too close, the hawk leaves its prey, hopping to a branch just above; then about 20 feet above into an old snag to dry his wings in the sun. Do I take the Wood Duck for my coworker to mount? No. That wouldn’t be right. The hawk struggled so hard for this meal, I can’t possibly take it. I leave the duck lying in the leaves with the hawk peering down at me from the treetop.

Later in the afternoon I return to the scene. The duck is gone without a trace. Not a single feather on the ground; no sign of a feast. After drying his wings, the hawk must have been able to lift off with the duck and consume his quarry elsewhere. ​Life in the wild is a struggle… for both predator and prey alike.

​Friday, 3:02 PM – the middle of November and it is a sunny 79 degree afternoon! Even the turtles came out to enjoy a bit of the warm spring-like weather!
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Walton County, Georgia

Tuesday, 8:38 AM - ​“Thunder” was turned in by his owner on a Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, it was late in the day and I couldn’t get his photos posted before leaving. So he sat all weekend without any internet exposure. 
 
Monday morning was quite busy and all I had time for was a quick kennel photo to post to waltonpets.net.  But each time I’d pass through the kennels that day, “Thunder” would grab my eye with that sad, “Pick me” look. But I was still too busy with other duties to work with him.
 
First thing Tuesday morning, all else aside, I made time to work with “Thunder”. He was a perfect gentleman as he sat in his kennel waiting for me to put on his leash. Once we were headed outside, he knew it and lead the way! In his excitement he pulled quite a bit, but responded to a gentle tug and came at more of a heel.  He was so happy to get outside (probably to use the bathroom!).  It took a few minutes for him to see the sights and smell the smells before I could get his attention for a few photos.
 
I walked him to my “wood-line photo studio” behind the shelter. The sun was just coming up during the photo shoot (8:34 AM) but hadn’t yet come too far over the horizon, allowing me to shoot him in morning shade rather than afternoon glare.  Over the next ten minutes I took 42 shots, which boiled down to just 4 good ones for the website.
 
The first three shots were taken from a kneeling position to be on his eye-level.  I shot using my 70-300mm telephoto lens from about 15 to 25 feet away. This zoom lens isn’t really ideal for this light, but it is the only really good zoom lens I have right now. It produces some nice shots, but also adds some “noise” due to the higher ISO needed with a long lens in low light. My camera was set to a 1/200 second minimum shutter speed to reduce the blur from his movements and my unsteady hands. The white balance was set for “shade”, but later tweaked a bit in Photoshop (that’s the beauty of shooting in RAW).
 
After knowing I had what I needed, I switched to my newer 40mm macro lens for some practice and fun. Changing the angle changes the entire feel of the photograph. I stood over “Thunder” and got a few close-up portraits from above. The only one that turned out nice was one focused on his cold, wet nose… very cute! Using a wider aperture gives less depth of field and puts his eyes in blur, focusing the attention on his nose. That shot was taken at f/3.5 and a shutter speed of 1/100 seconds to reduce some of the motion blur.
 
After his photography I brought him to the interaction pens to see how he was with other dogs. He was quite excited each time to see another four-legged friend. He immediately wanted to let the other dogs know he was the big man on campus with his posturing, but didn’t really show any aggression. (Not sure how he’d react if another dominant male challenged his ego, though.) Once introductions were made, he enthusiastically sniffed and pounced, all while wagging his tail. 

After that it was back into the shelter for heartworm testing, vaccinations and deworming; then into my office for photo editing and website posting. All in all, over an hour for one complete workup. Walton Animal Guild had offered yesterday to sponsor a neuter voucher, and "Thunder" seemed the perfect canditate for WAG pet of the week!

​Walton County, Georgia

​“There is a popular belief that the most interesting things in the natural world can only be found in faraway places or specifically designated areas. But a watchful eye, a little extra attention to detail, and a sharpened sensitivity can uncover a veritable Serengeti Park just beyond the bedroom window. All you have to do is learn to see.”
​-John Mitchell, A Field Guide to Your Own Backyard

Thursday, 8:43 AM - one of the first true chilly, windy mornings of the fall; when I left home at 6:30 AM there was actually some frost on the roof of my house and on the truck windshield. This is the signal that it’s time to fly… time for the winter waterfowl migrations. When I arrived at the shelter this morning, our first waterfowl visitors were on the main shelter pond: a Grebe and a male/female pair of Hooded Mergansers.

​Wednesday, 12:35 PM – a beautiful breezy fall day today; a mostly blue dome overhead with wispy white clouds trailing across the sky. The strong breeze has brought small waves blowing south along the main shelter pond; two Turkey Vultures appear to be riding high, soaring in the gusty wind currents. 

​Election day, 12:56 PM.  A gorgeous, breezy, mild, mostly-sunny, 64° afternoon. Having just finished my first marathon on Saturday, my normal lunch break treadmill sessions are on hold for at least a week. So I had plenty of time for an easy walk behind the shelter. Approaching the upper pond, a Great Blue Heron is fishing, but moves off to the far end of the pond as I approach. If I only had a longer lens I could have captured the beauty. 

I sold my first stock photo today on Dreamstime.com! The photo was from 2013 of a Great Egret that allowed me close approach on the upper pond behind the animal shelter. I remember sitting for at least twenty minutes watching this beauty preen in the warm sun.  

The sale gives me only a $2 credit, but perhaps it is a start toward purchasing the Manfrotto tri-pod I'd like for the shelter photos, and the 200-500mm lens I’ve been dreaming about for wildlife photography.