South-Texas-Birding-Photography-Workshop

South Texas Bird Photography Workshop

In South Texas Bird Photo Workshop, Archived Photo Workshops by Matt Shetzer

South Texas Bird Photography Workshop

TABLE OF CONTENTS
  • Trip Highlights
  • Itinerary/Details
  • 2021
    Dates: February 28 - March 6, 2021
    (SOLD OUT)
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    Locations: Rio Grande Valley, Texas. 3 of the best birding ranches in South Texas.

    Fee: $3,795 USD Per Person
    Single supplement of $500

    Deposit: $1,000

    Limit: 6 photographers \ 3 photographers per guide.

    Duration: 7 days/ 6 nights

    Skill Level: Beginner to Pro

    Non-Photographers Discount: $250

    Trip Leader: Matt Shetzer

    Trip Origination: Edinburg, Texas. Fly into McAllen, Texas.

    Ask Questions about the Workshop

    TRIP HIGHLIGHTS

    South Texas Photo WorkshopExplore the best the Texas Rio-Grande valley has to offer for bird photography during the South Texas Bird Photography Workshop as we visit three of the best photo ranches in the valley.

    During the week, we will visit the Laguna Seca Ranch, the Santa Clara Ranch, and one of the largest historic Texas ranches settled in the 1890’s.

    We will explore these premier nature photography locations that have been designed for photographers by photographers. Each ranch location has multiple professional below-ground photo blinds designed to capture the beautiful morning and evening light. They also place the photographer at eye level with the wildlife and add desirable warm creamy backgrounds that bring focus to your subject.

    3 Birding Ranches

    Explore three birding ranches during this workshop to diversify your images and capture all South Texas has to offer.

    Custom blinds built for photographers

    Each of the three private ranches have unique wildlife species, as well as varying backgrounds that will make your portfolio from the trip stand out.

    A local guide will be joining us to assist the group with the wildlife trends and behaviors as well as assist with photogenic perches and tricks for attracting with wildlife.

    Over the years, we have found that having a local guide assist the photo workshop is a great asset to the group as they are daily out in the field at the ranches we visit and are familiar with the species that are currently visiting the blinds.

    Full Itinerary and Details for the South Texas Bird Photography Workshop  

    Laguna Seca Ranch

    South Texas Bird Photography Workshop

    A Colorful Green Jay with its crest up

    This family owned private ranch contains 700 acres of pristine brush land. The professional below-ground photography blinds have been designed with watering holes to put the photographer comfortably in the right position as the wildlife comes to feed and drink from each location. There are two morning blinds and two evening blinds as well as a raptor blind to keep up busy while at this location.

    Laguna Seca Ranch has feeders located around the property that attract wildlife year-round. Its carefully designed photography blinds enable to guests to photograph the colorful South Texas birds with pleasing backgrounds in-flight or while perched.

    The raptors are fed at the Laguna Seca Ranch a couple of times each week, whether there are photographers on location or not. By constantly feeding the raptors, they now call Laguna Seca their home, and provide great photo opportunities for our guests of the South Texas Bird Photography Workshop.


    South Texas Bird Photography Workshop

    The Crested Caracara, a tropical version of a vulture that is related to falcons

    Santa Clara Ranch

    A private wildlife sanctuary with over 300 acres of virgin brush land, the Santa Clara Ranch is a premier wildlife photography location. In addition to the many species of birds that frequent South Texas, Santa Clara ranch has many mammals that visit its watering holes and photo blinds.

    Santa Clara Ranch has two morning blinds and two evening blinds, as well as raptor blind providing the group with many options throughout our time here. Each blind has a watering hole, rarely found in the wild of South Texas’s dry climate, to attract the wildlife and make it part of their daily routine.

    This premier ranch in the lower Rio Grande Valley provides a natural habitat for the native wildlife to call home, and has constructed pit blinds for the photographers to capture beautiful images.


    Historic Texas Ranch

    South Texas Bird Photography Workshop

    Professional below ground blinds designed for photographer by photographers.

    Explore one of the 10th largest working ranches in Texas spanning over 34,000 acres. The ranch was first settled in the early 1890’s and has very little modifications since the Spanish/Mexican colonial era.

    The ranch has many historic structures on the property which lends to landscape photography as well as provides fantastic opportunities for us to walk around the grounds and capture images the ranch symbolic of Texas’ past.

    This historic ranch contains two below ground blinds, one that is designed for morning light and the second for evening light. Both blinds offer very pleasing setups with a waterhole at each and pleasing backgrounds.

    You will experiece true Texas hospitality at the ranch as we dine with our hosts and they prepare authentic Tex-Mex dishes. Also on the proporety are historic ruins that date back to before Texas was a state.


    BIRDS THAT VISIT THE 3 RANCHES ON OUR SCHEDULE
    • Harris’s Hawk
    • Audubon’s Oriole
    • Hooded Oriole
    • Crested Caracara
    • Great Kiskadee
    • Pyrrhuloxia
    • White-eyed Vireo
    • Golden-fronted Woodpecker
    • Ladder-backed Woodpecker
    • Northern Bobwhite
    • Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
    • Red-winged Blackbird
    • Eurasian Collared-Dove
    • Common Yellowthroat
    • Black-tailed Gnatcatcher
    • Lesser Goldfinch
    • White-crowned Sparrow
    • Northern Cardinal
    • Black Vulture
    • Brown-headed Cowbird
    • Eastern Phoebe
    • Greater Roadrunner
    • Vermilion Flycatcher
    • American Kestrel
    • Long-billed Thrasher
    • Curve-billed Thrasher
    • Yellow-rumped Warbler
    • Yellow-throated Warbler
    • Orange-crowned Warbler
    • Lark Bunting
    • Killdeer
    • Olive Sparrow
    • Black-throated Sparrow
    • Vesper Sparrow
    • Lincoln’s Sparrow
    • Savannah Sparrow
    • Chihuahuan Raven
    • Clay-colored Sparrow
    • Common Ground-Dove
    • House Sparrow
    • White-tailed Hawk
    • Eastern Meadowlark
    • Black-crested Titmouse
    • Green Jay
    • Western Meadowlark
    • Northern Mockingbird
    • Scaled Quail
    • Gray Catbird
    • Sprague’s Pipit
    • Ovenbird
    • Turkey Vulture
    • White-tipped Dove
    • White-winged Dove
    • Wild Turkey
    • Green-tailed Towhee
    • Lark Sparrow
    • Mourning Dove
    • Swamp Sparrow
    • Indigo Bunting
    • Hermit Thrush
    WILDLIFE THAT VISITS THE BLINDS
    • White-tailed deer
    • Javelina
    • Opossum
    • Armadillo
    • Bobcats (Rare but possible)
    • Coyote
    • Raccoon
    • Skunk
    • Cottontail Rabbit
    • Western Diamondback Rattlesnake

    While we won’t be able to photograph all of the species listed above during the South Texas Bird Photography Workshop (we can always hope) these lists provide a good sample of the wildlife that visit the ranches we will be photographing.

    South Texas Bird Photography Workshop

    A Greater Roadrunner. Watching this amazing creature, you can just hear the cartoon going ‘meep meep’

    SOUTH TEXAS BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP


    TABLE OF CONTENTS

    South Texas Bird Photography Workshop was last modified: August 17th, 2021 by Matt Shetzer