Spring migrants from last weekend, 4/2/11

[labmansid]

Made a day trip to the Galveston area last weekend scouting for Spring migrants while I had the chance. Found several species I had never seen, much less photographed, before. That's really not saying a lot actually, since I haven't seriously gone after warblers and such in the past! It turned out better than I had thought it would, since I figured it was a little early in the season and there haven't been any cold fronts to create a big "fallout" effect. Anyway, it was a fun day, even if it was a little long after waking up before 4:30AM!!

First guy to show up was a nice Hooded Warbler.




Drying off after a nice bath.




Later on a Wilson's Warbler joined the party.






A Palm Warbler made a brief appearance.



This one I believe is a Nashville Warbler.





Last but certainly not least is a Northern Parula.








Thanks for looking!!

[rjsalinas]

Nice set of warblers

[jfoureyes]

Outstanding Sid!! They are all great!

[wapiti]

Wonderful images, Sid.
I've never seen any of these, much less photographed them. Do these guys ever show up at BBSP?

[HuyMan]

I like the first pic of the Hooded Warbler!!

[corralup]

I'm really impressed with your collection here. Did you take these hand held?

[labmansid]

Originally Posted by wapiti

.... Do these guys ever show up at BBSP?

I know the Northern Parulas are seen at BBSP, as well as Prothonotary warblers which nest there. I'm not sure about any of the other warblers, although it's quite likely some do stop there during migrations. The woods there are so spread out one may never see them close to the trails.

Originally Posted by corralup

...... Did you take these hand held?

No, Sandy, all of these I used a tripod for. The light was pretty low under the trees, and I was doing good most times to get 1/250 or 1/320 on shutter speed at 1250 or so ISO. Fill flash was also used on most shots that day.


Thanks for the comments.

[DougC]

Looks like ya' done good!

[bunnyfrogs]

Holy cow! These are all fantastic!

[houtex01]

These really look great Sid...looks like you had a very productive trip...nice closeups...

Ron

[preames]

Fantastic series of birds. Beautiful shots all. Since you asked for CC, the only thing I think could improve the images is a bit of NR on the backgrounds.

[ldelacruz]

Great finds! I have never seen them.

[sandboa]

Great series. Warbler photography during migration is a lot of fun. I hope to get down to the coast this weekend.

I like the fact that you can see the crown on the Nashville Warbler. You don't see that rufous crown often.