Saturday, February 9, 2013

Backyard Awesomeness!



Nirvana!!  That's what describes today's backyard bird shoot.

I got up and was out back by 7:30am.  This time of the morning seemed to be a good time to put myself in position to get good photographs.  So there I stood.  Five minutes went by; nothing.  Ten minutes; more nothing.  At about the fifteen minute mark a lone Male Cardinal started singing in the distance.  Shortly thereafter a flock of about ten Red Winged Blackbirds flew in.  Though there were more females than males, the woods finally started to sound like it was coming alive.  As time went on there were more chips, chortles and squawks.  I recognized some and some were familiar but undistinguishable by me.  There was nothing to shoot, yet.

The feeder was full of food.  The usual mix was there and in addition I put some crumbled stale potato chips, finely crushed.  As time went on the bushes seemed to come alive.  I truly didn't know where to look.  Squirrels played to my left and a Catbird 'meowed' to my right.  I focused on the feeder.  Surely someone would land soon, wouldn't they?

The scrub to the right of where I was standing is a mix of various plants, most could be found if one were to leave their yard unmowed and unattended for say, a year or so.  The bushes grow to the height of about five to ten feet.  The undergrowth is sparse.  I suspect that this is because each plant has to fight for it's right to the available sunshine, growing quickly at first then bushing out as it reaches the proper lighting.  The birds don't seem to mind this.  In fact, they rather enjoy being able to fly under and hop quickly from branch to branch, near the ground without many branches in their way to obstruct them.

Movement to the right caught my eye.  It was a small bird.  I was thinking at first a Gray Catbird, but dismissed it as too large.  My next thought was that it was some kind of Warbler.  I could only catch a glimpse here and there of the bird and I was getting discouraged as identification seemed impossible.
I panned the camera to the right.  The bird moved.  More to the left this time.  The bird moved again.  This little bird was fast; faster than most.  I finally got a quick look at the wing pattern.  Stripes.  I saw some stripes.  The bird was clearly a Warbler of some kind, of this I was sure.

I'm not very knowledgable on each of the Warblers that inhabit the Orlando area, and I'm even worse at the seasonal visitors.  Clearly I need to brush up on them.  The peek-a-boo game continued for about thirty minutes.  In all of that time, there I was trying to catch more than a half second glimpse of a rather small brownish, grayish something.  Then it happened.  Whether the bird got tired of playing with me or just thought that the old guy deserved a break for all the peering and watching he was doing, out it popped into the open.  I moved the lens into position and I was staring at an empty branch.  ARGH!!!
I did get a brief look however.  I tried to commit what I'd seen to memory; black stripes on the face from the beak to the throat, finch-like bill, some white on the wing bars.  Not bad for a half second look, I thought.  However I was no closer to figuring out what bird it was.  This aggravation went on for about another twenty minutes.  In that time I again caught brief glimpses of this little bird, but nothing that would get me any closer to either a picture or an identification.

My attention was drawn quickly to the bird feeder where two Red Winged Blackbirds were creating a loud bird squabble.  As I spun the camera around in hopes of catching some of the action.  No luck.  The noise was the last part of the fight and they were both off in different directions to continue doing was Red Winged Blackbirds do.  As I glanced to the bushes again on my right, there it was, sitting in the shade, but at least it was out in the open.  I set the dials for the shot, focused the camera and held down the shutter button.  After two clicks the bird was gone.  Surely I'd gotten the shot.  I had to have.  I was right on it.  Wasn't I???

There's a word for immediately looking at your pictures after you take them to make sure you got the shot, (it escapes me now), but its amateurish and I don't do it.  However, this time is different.  I had to see this bird.  Clicking back three photographs seemed like the right spot to start.  There I found a picture of an empty branch.  Did I go far enough back?  The next picture was the same branch.  I know I took a picture of the bird.  It was there when I pushed the button.  In the third picture there was a bird.  Well I think it was a bird?  It sort of looked like what I would imagine a bird would look like for the first two seconds in a blender!  BLUR!!  ALL BLUR!!!   ARRRRRRRGH!!!!

After a short temper tantrum, (said under my breath and what I said I'm not proud of),  I again went back to observing the woods.  There it was again.  Farther away this time, but in the sunlight, then out of the sunlight, then in the sunlight.  This is getting old, I thought.  It's playing with me.

Another small bird flew into the tree directly in front of me and lighted on a branch right over my head. I knew this bird; a Blue Gray Gnatcatcher.  It seemed he was faster than my nemesis but he was out in the open.  There was nowhere for him to hide.  After a series of shots I had him.  No need to look at those!  A quick glance to my right took my breath away.  There he was sitting on a twig not ten feet from me.  I set the camera and again held down the button.  You're not getting away this time, I said under my breath.  Then he was gone.

This scenario happened three times today, all at different times and all with different birds.  After a quick search in my handy dandy bird book, (Sibley), the bird was identified as a House Wren.  The second bird was a Prairie Warbler and the third was a Common Yellowthroat.

The beauty of it was that they all turned out to be "lifers" for me, (birds that were on my life list that I hadn't seen yet with my own two eyes).   What a day!!  I'm so happy that they were there and I was too!!  The photographs aren't the best I've seen, but they will allow you to identify the birds as I did.

Enjoy!!

Friday, February 1, 2013

Sometimes Only A Few Birds

Howdy!

Today was an interesting day attempting to take photographs out back.  I was initially greeted by silence, complete silence.  No bird songs.  No birds flitting from tree to tree.  No birds moving here and there in the undergrowth.  Nothing.  This lasted for about ten minutes.  Let me also inform you that ten minutes waiting for anything is a long time.  Especially when that "anything" is something that happens in a split second and lasts about that long.

At first it was a chip here and a chip there, then slowly as if each and every bird knew the plan and were watching, sound started to come from the left, then the right, then it seemed from every direction.  Just when I thought that things were back to normal, it stopped again.  Silence.  Deafening silence.   I panned the area looking for anything that could cause seemingly hundreds of birds to suddenly get quiet.  Then, as if on queue, here he came, as silent as the air around him.

For a feral cat, he was a beauty.  Calico by color and a tiger by attitude.  It was if he owned the copse.  The birds clearly knew him and his reputation.  Even the Blue Jays in the area watched in silence, (something that they seldom do), as he walked purposefully to an area under my bird feeder.  I made a "phishing" sound to let him know I was there.  It didn't seem to bother him.  In fact, he barely even seemed to care.  Oh sure, he looked at me, but it was as if to say, "This is my woods and for the time being, I'll let you stay".

When he stopped under the feeder the woods again came alive.  It was as if by some indistinguishable head nod or blink or flick of the ear, all the birds suddenly knew it wasn't them he was after.  They were right.  He wanted the few bits of kibble, (cat food) that I mix into the birdseed daily.  He seemed to also know that only a few birds ate kibble and the rest wound up on the copse floor, almost calling his name.

He didn't stay long and as purposefully as he came, he went.  I'd never seen him before.  The wife said that he's been around for a while, but this was our first encounter.  He was a polite gentleman and he certainly can stay as long as he doesn't bother any of my feathered friends.


Welcome to the neighborhood, Mr. Confidence, (Mr. C).