Thanks to some great hosts, enthusiastic participants and mostly cooperative weather we had another great visit & photo safari in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. To coincide with NANPA’s Summit we moved the trip up from April to March. As a result we took a little bit of a risk with the weather but it worked out and we were able to get plenty of shooting time each day.

As always the trip featured private ranches open exclusively to photo groups. This provided us with a premium photography experience in carefully constructed photographer-friendly blinds and raptor feeding areas. Participants got great shots with lenses ranging from the Sigma 50-500 to the Nikon 200-400 and the Nikon and Canon 500mm, 600mm and Canon 800mm. Most of the blinds are moveable so they can even be tuned to the lenses in use that day.

In addition to the ideal shooting situation and exclusive access another wonderful advantage of shooting on private land is customizing the blind and surroundings. We had 1500 acres to cherry pick for great perches which we could trim and place in front of contrasting backgrounds. And we had a choice of nearly a dozen blinds arranged in morning and afternoon configurations so over the four days everyone could get plenty of variety.

The local specialties were out in full force, including the photogenic Crested Caracaras, Green Jays, Olive Sparrows, Great Kiskadee, Golden-fronted Woodpeckers and Harris’s Hawks. We also had plenty of ground birds including the hard to find Green-tailed Towhee along with Scaled and Bobwhite Quail and Long-billed and Curve-billed Thrashers. Not to be outdone the Northern Cardinals and Pyrrhuloxia where out in large numbers and gave us plenty of great poses. On the final day the season’s first Scissortail Flycatchers obligingly appeared to join the nesting Vermillion Flycatchers and Couch’s Kingbirds.

Some of the many other species which gave us good opportunities included nesting Cactus Wren, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Black-throated and Lincoln’s and Savannah and White-Crowned Sparrows, Black-crested Titmouse, and Eastern Screech Owls. Walt and Nancy did especially well with the Cactus Wrens while Mike got the prize shot of a Scissortail with his new 600f/4—which along with some good practice and experience definitely helped him kick his photos up more than a notch from his last visit. Richie and Barbra took advantage of their full frame Canon cameras to get some great action shots even in low light while Tommy, Bob and John all honed their skills with quiet concentration throughout the week.

We didn’t get as many mammals as usual but did get plenty of Desert Cottontail and White-tailed Deer. Several blinds were treated to the gorgeous and harmless Indigo Snakes gliding across their water features. And of course we got some good Rattlesnake images—at a distance of course.

I’ve posted some of my favorite images from the trip online, and you can see a slideshow of them (courtesy of Proshow Web and SmugMug) right here:

Nora Nell cooked up her usual great meals for us and most of us were fortunate enough to be able to stay right at the luxurious lodge out at the ranch—where we also had our classroom sessions in the air conditioning each mid-day after lunch. Steve and Hardy did a great job guiding as always and Danny is a welcome addition to the team.

Next year we’ll be returning to our usual 5-day format and running the trip in April like usual. We’ll announce the exact dates in a month or so but if you’re interested in having us let you know personally email us at safaris [at] cardinalphoto.com or subscribe to our newsletter. We hope you can join us! If you can’t wait that long remember we’ve got a trip to the beautiful Hill Country in Texas in November in addition to our Africa trip in May, Alaska in July and Southeast Asia in December.