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Posts tagged ‘national wildlife refuge’

Apr 30

Wildflowers and the Balcones Canyonlands

We’ve had a fairly wet spring here in central Texas, which is great for the wildflowers.  The weather yesterday was ideal for wildflower photography—mostly cloudy and temperatures in the low 80’s.

I left the house with my Fujifilm X-T2 and a few lenses.  The images shown here were taken with my XF16-55mm f/2.8 and XF50-140mm f/2.8 lenses.  I used the builtin Fujifilm  Velvia profile.

I drove north of Austin, finding many wildflowers along the way.  These photos were taken along Ranch to Market Road 1431, between Lago Vista and Marble Falls.

_DSF8245Bluebonnets and Fleabane
(Click any image to enlarge.)

The high season for bluebonnets (the state flower of Texas) was about a month ago.  In many locations, the blue flowers have given way to the yellows and reds and oranges of other wildflowers.

_DSF8231Indian Blanket, with a few Bluebonnets and Coreopsis mixed in

As I prepared this post and looked up the names of the wildflowers in the various photos, I realized how close I came to suffering a painful fate. Read more

Sep 17

Puffins of Tuxedni National Wildlife Refuge

About 12 miles north of Silver Salmon Creek are a pair of islands that are part of the Tuxedni National Wildlife Refuge.  In this photo, the larger island is Chisik Island, with the Aleutian Range and the Chigmit Mountains behind it in the distance.  The small island in the right foreground is Duck Island, where hundreds of Horned and Tufted Puffins nest.

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Thanks to our neighbors at Silver Salmon Creek Lodge, we were able to take the lodge’s boat to see the puffins.  As you can see, this was one of our calm, clear weather days, and the puffins were very active.  They were only a few days away from leaving the island—they winter at sea in the Gulf of Alaska.

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Here’s a photo of Duck Island as we departed, with Redoubt Volcano in the distance.  Redoubt last erupted in 2009.  (Another active volcano, Iliamna, is about 15 miles west of the lodge.)

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