February 16 -- A Vermilion (Flycatcher) Kind Of Day...

But HE was in the afternoon...I spent the morning and late afternoon at the Overton Wildlife Management Area, about a mile down the street from the RV park where I'm staying. A bit of background on "OWMA": it's 14,000 acres, on national park land (the Lake Mead National Rec Area) leased by the state of Nevada. It's HUGE, and only a panorama can do it justice; I took this 3-photo pano about a week ago, just before sunset --

This view is looking south, with the desert mountains fringing Lake Mead in the distance. That's all wildlife area in front of you. Amazing, right? There are ponds large and small, wetlands, desert scrub brush, willows -- all kinds of habitat.  ANYthing can be "hiding" in there. Last year a Common Crane, a Eurasian bird, was discovered at OWMA and birders flocked (pardon the pun) from all over to see it. On my hikes on the dirt roads lacing through the area I've seen Harriers, Red-tailed Hawks, Crissal Thrasher, Spotted Towhee, ducks of all varieties, Phainopepla, Roadrunner, Prairie Falcon, a Bald Eagle... Here are 3 views of the habitat to be found there, the first with a Red-tailed Hawk and fleeing ducks (they still spook easily as hunting season just ended)  --

And a "grounded" male Northern Harrier checking out the area, hoping to be not as conspicuous as when flying --

And this is Pintail "Pond", actually a small lake; you can see one of the many hunting blinds found at the wildlife area, for it is a "multi-use" area and managed by the Nevada Dept of Fish And Wildlife --

This place has GREAT potential to come across something "good"...And I did, in the late afternoon, when I re-discovered the "first winter" male Vermilion Flycatcher, going for flying insects in exactly the same location I had encountered him a few days before. He was hard to photograph then as he was screened by branches and I was shooting into the sun; this time, I lucked out, with the sun behind me and just brown mesa or blue sky for a bg, using the 500 f/4 lens with a 1.4x teleconverter on at ISO 100. And I able to get within about 30 feet from him -- 

Shooting in RAW at ISO 100 you crop quite a bit and the details will still hold --

The day was another wonderful outing at the Overton Wildlife Management Area. Then I came home (because that's what Discovery is) and discovered I have a dripping kitchen faucet...