We took it easy again this morning. I had my regular breakfast then worked up a blog entry. We prepped the RV to move, then J drove the Jeep to a convenient place to hook it up to tow and I followed in the RV. I had to stop part way there because I had snagged a low-hanging wire from a telephone pole with the RV! I had to climb up to the roof several times to walk the wire back as I pulled the RV forward. I'm not sure why I got hung up on the wire on the way out and not on the way in. We hooked up the Jeep to tow and got underway around 11:05.

We went to the Burger King in Bisbee around 11:40 for lunch. I used a coupon to get a free small drink and free small fries with a Steakhouse XT Burger and J got a Whopper Jr. and small onion rings. We got the food to go and ate in the RV. It was the first time I had had an XT burger, and I wasn't impressed. The "XT" stands for "eXtra Thick," and the burger was about twice the thickness of the burger used in a Whopper (my usual). This particular burger was also very dry, and the fancier bun didn't do anything for me either.

J went into the nearby Safeway (grocery store) around 12:05 to shop on her own while I stayed in the RV and processed images for a stock submission. J returned around 1:30. After she put away the groceries, she went online using the nice Verizon Wireless Broadband signal. She saw that Darwin Wiggett mentioned on his blog a new Singh-Ray LB Warming Polarizer in a Cokin Z-Pro sprocket mount that's compatible with the Lee filter holder. Hmmm — I was just about the buy a B+W 82mm Kaesemann MRC Circular Polarizer for my new Canon TS-E 24mm f3.5 L II tilt-shift lens because the alternative of mounting a 105mm polarizer at the front of the Lee filter holder (away from the lens) sounds like an odd way to go. Having the Singh-Ray polarizer at the back of the Lee filter holder (near the lens) might be a good way to go. However, the Singh-Ray polarizer is bloody expensive and it's their warming polarizer — I prefer cheaper and neutral. We left around 2:15.

We went to the Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area around 2:55 and the wind was blowing like crazy. It was our first time to Whitewater Draw, a wetlands area good for birds, especially sandhill cranes in the winter. We parked in an area where camping is permitted and we had a nice Verizon Wireless Broadband Access signal. :) A follow-on post to Darwin Wiggett's blog mentioned the new Lee Big Stopper 10-stop neutral density (ND) filter, so I looked into it. It looks like the perfect solution to getting lots of ND in a single filter so I would no longer have to stack two ND filters. Unfortunately, because it's so new, I haven't been able to find a dealer in the US who sells them yet. (Lee Filters is a UK company.) I processed more images for a stock submission. Oddly, I started to feel seasick from the RV rocking in the wind. Usually the rocking doesn't bother me, but the motion was different this time, probably because the Jeep was still hooked up to tow. I went outside and put out some stabilizer jacks, and that stopped the rocking. :) I went back to processing images for a stock submission, and after a while I felt much better. J started to prepare dinner by getting the Cola Maple Glaze Ham and J's Powderhorn Potatoes Variation ready to cook.

The wind started to die down, so we went outside around 5:50 to see what we could photograph. Late afternoon isn't the best time to head out because the man-made wetland ponds are to the west of the parking area, so one has to flush most of the birds before getting on the right side of the light to photograph them. :( My favorite image from the wetlands area was of a pair of blue-winged teal in flight (below). I also saw American avocet, yellow-headed blackbird, American coot, vermillion flycatcher, killdeer, common snipe (I think), and cinnamon teal.


After the sun had set, we started to make our way back to the RV and there were quite a few bats flying overhead. We stopped in the large open shelter and saw a great horned owl resting in the rafters (below). Yes, the image was taken with a 1-second exposure. I set up the camera for manual focussing, no IS (Image Stabilization), mirror lockup, and a two-second self timer to get the steadiest image possible. Fortunately the owl stayed still and the slight breeze didn't blow its feathers too much in the image.


We returned to the RV around 6:50 and J started to cook dinner. I won the 82mm lens adaptor ring for a Lee Foundation kit on eBay at a good price. :) I downloaded the images I took this afternoon then downselected them first in iView then in Capture One (C1).

We had dinner around 8:05 of Cola Maple Glaze Ham, J's Powderhorn Potatoes Variation, and brocolli. I enjoyed everything, but J didn't like the canned ham. We had angel-food cake with J's Lemon Glaze Icing for dessert.

After I did the dishes, I processed two images for the blog then worked up a blog entry.