Marceline VandeWater Photos (updated March, 2009)


How about this for a great Halloween photo? This black widow spider can be seen twice -- at left and also silhouetted by sunlight on an aloe. Marceline Vandewater is among our guided birdwalk leaders and she's also an accomplished photographer of birds, butterflies and landscapes. Marceline's Cards are available here.




Marceline shared this nice closeup of the hybrid hummingbird (Violet-crowned crossed with Broad-billed) that she took in October, 2006. If you are trying to find this bird look for iridescent blue feathers on the head and shoulders with clean, white chest. The only other hummingbirds with orange bills here at BTA are the year-round resident Broad-billed Hummingbirds.


Autumn foliage season begins in October. These pistachio leaves were caught in the lens during a splendid late October day in 2006.


This image from Summer, 2006, shows the dramatic orange color of a Flame Skimmer dragonfly.

Black Throated Sparrow is among the more common species at the Arboretum, in fact seven of these handsome little birds were counted here on May 12, 2007.

Hybrids are rare, but Marceline managed to get two excellent photos of birds with mixed parentage: the hummingbird seen above and also this apparent hybrid sapsucker, which seems to have markings of both Red-naped and Red-breasted Sapsucker parents.

Ring-necked Duck
White-throated Sparrow

Earless Lizard





Monarch Butterfly see more of Marceline's butterfly photos on the Central Arizona Butterfly Association website

Hermit Thrush

Red-breasted Nuthatch

       Marceline is an Arizona State Parks volunteer who generously offers her time guiding birdwalks here at the Arboretum and also at the Gilbert Riparian Preserve wetlands, which is another excellent place to see and photograph birds. She prefers a Canon EOS 300D.... "the lens i use is also a Canon: the EF 400/5.6. I have always been interested in nature, plants (I studied botany) and later birds, in particular. I have been birding since 1988, helping out with bird counts and nest box watching, but that was all back in Holland where I’m originally from."
       "I came to the United States in 1994, and bought my first SLR camera (the Canon EOS Elan IIe) in the Fall of 1996 with the help of my instructor of the beginner photography class I took with the City of Scottsdale. Later I took their advanced class too. I stayed with Canon, because the lenses are interchangeable. With bird photography I combined both hobbies."
       "For nearly four years I have worked part time at the Wild Bird Center in Scottsdale. It’s fun to help people selecting a feeder or book, or help with solving their bird-related problems or questions. Also I conduct bird walks around the Phoenix area on a regular basis for our customers and sometimes for the local Audubon Society. Observing birds and their behavior and trying to shoot that perfect picture is a fun and sometimes frustrating hobby, but it also makes me happy when a picture turns out great!"
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