Month: May 2011

Zoe’s Photographs

Until this visit, the birding and photography had been almost exclusively a Logan-Gramps sort of thing, especially since Logan likes to get up early while Zoe likes to sleep in. This trip, though, Zoe insisted on going so the kids had to share Tyson’s handed-down camera, a very good one by the way.

Here’s Zoe ready to capture the world as it really is, or, at least as she sees it.

Zoe with Camera

On the final day, we went to the Denver Botanic Gardens and she ended up using my camera because I borrowed the 100mm-300mm lens I’d given Tyson. Here’s a shot of some of the artwork that seems to be an integral part of the garden:

Window

Dad seemed more than willing to pose, but little sister couldn’t get too enthused:

Tyson holding Sydney

I did notice that many of her shots seemed to be inclined, even though this statue sat pretty squarely on top of the knoll:

Archer

Strangely, I think I prefer it taken at this angle than at the angle I took it.

This shot of me is one of my favorites,

because it captures my left-leaning ways.

Unexpected

The real joy of birding for me isn’t seeing birds that I go looking for — it’s seeing birds that I don’t expect to see simply because I’m more aware of my surroundings because I’m â€?”birding.”

The best example of this was our day trip to a reservoir in Denver where I got one of the shots of the Black-Billed Magpie I showed yesterday. I was glad I could get closer than I’d been able to do in the past, but it wasn’t unexpected.

Unexpected was seeing this little Spotted Sandpiper on the edge of the reservoir:
I was sure I’d never gotten a picture of a Spotted Sandpiper before, but it turns out that I’ve never gotten a picture of a Spotted Sandpiper in breeding colors before because I’d only seen them in Ocean Shores during the winter.

Spotted Sandpiper in breeding colors

If I hadn’t read Cornell’s All About Birds I would probably never have known that â€?”The most widespread breeding sandpiper in North America, the Spotted Sandpiper breeds along the edges of nearly any water source throughout the northern half of the continent. It is at home around urban ponds as well as tundra pools.”

I’m not sure I would have believed that this was the same bird

Spotted Sandpiper in breeding colors

if I hadn’t seen it fly directly to this spot. I’m always amazed how a bird’s neck seems to disappear in certain poses, not to mention an absent leg.

The other surprise of the trip was this Swainson’s Hawk

Swainson Hawk in flight

which I, at first, took for a Red-Tailed Hawk until I consulted my Sibley Guide because the colors just didn’t look quite right for a Red-Tailed Hawk.

Magpies

As regular readers will know, I’m quite fond of crows, so it should come as no surprise that I’m also fond of Black-Billed Magpies, a close relative of the crow. Unfortunately, I’ve had very little luck getting shots of them when I’ve been in Colorado or eastern Washington.

I was luckier this time, probably because I knew where to look for them since I’d found one of their nests in a previous visit and read that they tend to return to the same nest year after year.

I’m pretty sure this is the best shot I’d gotten of a Magpie so far,

Magpie on Fence

though I just missed an even better shot when the bird took off, but unfortunately it was so fast that the head was cut off. The blue feathers were beautiful in flight, though.

As it so often turns out after you’ve gotten a shot you’re happy with, you get another shot you like equally. That happened when we went to a reservoir in Denver the next day and I spotted this Magpie who wasn’t nearly as shy:

Black-Billed Magpie

It was looking at this shot that I realized just how impressive a Magpie’s tail is, something I really had noticed before. This one spent most of the time I was observing him walking through the grass scavenging for food, so I didn’t get a chance to get a picture of it in flight.