The next few posts will chronicle my visit to South Texas, where I attended a workshop that was part of the Mentor Series, who leads worldwide photo treks www.MentorSeries.com. Their treks range from 3 days to 7 to 10 days.
Our first day started off the morning with a program that included meeting, the mentors, Bob Smith
and Layne Kennedy, who presented a short program about their work and photography style. The mentors then presented a camera settings question-and-answer session.
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| Northern Shovelers |
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| Green-winged Teal |
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| Ruddy Duck |
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| Northern Shoveler - female preening |
In the early afternoon, we departed for the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center in Port Aransas. In order to reach Port Aransas, you have to travel across the ship channel in a ferry. The Birding Center is on the outskirts of the sewage treatment plant and has a boardwalk leading out into the lake where you can observe and photograph the wildlife. There were large numbers of ducks present, including Northern Shovelers, Blue-winged Teal, Green-winged Teal, Ruddy Ducks, and some Mottled Ducks..
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| Black-necked Stilts |
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| American Avocets |
Flights of Black-neck Stilts and American Avocets flew by.
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| Northern Harrier |
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| Northern Harrier |
Northern Harrier's made their presence known..
Suddenly, out of the weeds came a huge flock of Night-Herons, Ducks, and a few Roseate Spoonbills.
Other than a Turkey Vulture flying overhead. We did not see any cause for the huge flight of birds.
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| American White Pelican |
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| Rosette Spoonbills landing in the marsh grass |
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| Rosette Spoonbills |
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| Black-crowned Night-Heron - juvenile |
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| These people had traveled down from Massachusetts for a sunny weekend of fishing |
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| Fishing off the Pier |
We finished off the day photographing at the Copano Bay Fishing Pier, where we were instructed on how to take motion blurs. In all, despite the cloudy and then rainy weather a great time was had on our first day.
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| Flower blur out of the camera with rear curtain flash |
and Layne Kennedy, who presented a short program about their work and photography style. The mentors then presented a camera settings question-and-answer session. 
Other than a Turkey Vulture flying overhead. We did not see any cause for the huge flight of birds.
