Wild things

You make our heart sing

he retired photographer hasn’t cleaned his kitchen this week. He’s been too busy taking pictures. After more than 30 years as a professional working for newspapers and magazines, including nearly 20 years shooting for the Advocate, Robert Bunch, a 60-something Vietnam veteran, quit photography for pay and instead took it up as a hobby.

Now he treks to White Rock Lake on an almost-daily basis (except in mid-summer, he says, when “it is too friggin’ hot”).

His preoccupation works in our favor, because after about a year and a half of this, Bunch agreed to share his best photos.

Here is a look at White Rock through the eyes of a no-nonsense nature lover.>>

I go out there in the morning usually Sunset Bay because that’s a hotspot … I spend about three hours shooting pictures and spend about three hours editing them and putting them on my website. Then if I feel like it, I go back in the afternoon and shoot for a couple more hours. It’s almost like a full-time job. I mean, I’ve neglected cleaning the house; I spend all my time on this. I just love it, man.

FAR LEFT: A great blue heron reflects while wading in Sunset Bay waters.

LEFT: “The black-bellied whistling duck is probably one of the rarest ducks I’ve seen out there,” Bunch says. “That’s the only time I’ve seen one show up.”

ABOVE: “It’s not a jackrabbit,” Bunch says when we mistakenly call it that. “That’s a cottontail. Jackrabbits are taller and rangier. This is a little furry Easter bunny-type rabbit.”

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP:

An Eastern kingbird snags a delicious dragonfly for dinner. “This is taken right up at Winfrey Point, on the hill,” Bunch says.

Ducklings line up for a photo. “Right after I took this, that one near the middle who is a little taller than the rest of them stood up and started flapping his wings,” Bunch says. “And they are so little. You just can’t believe how little they are, man.”

“My coyote pictures all have an asterisk by them,” Bunch says, “because you aren’t really sure if they are full-blooded coyote or part-dog, part-coyote. This one’s a little doggy-looking, in my opinion.”

A tricolored heron puts on a show. “This is a great-looking bird here. I took this at Sunset Bay. He was about five feet off the shore.”

TOP LEFT: A baby Baltimore oriole begs its momma for food. Robert says he was thrilled to find the nest of orioles, which is a very rare find at White Rock Lake.

FAR BOTTOM LEFT: Two white pelicans go at it.

LEFT: Bunch spotted this bobcat near Sunset Bay, at the southeast side of White Rock Lake. “He was there for a few seconds and then he disappeared,” Bunch says.