As those of you know who live on the island, we had a bit of moisture blow in this morning... not long after I correctly decided it might be too risky for my morning walk. I was sitting at my computer in the late morning when I spied a Varied thrush in the area beyond what we define as 'yard'. This was our second sighting of the fall.
I noticed at the time that there were an unusual number of American robins in the yard... probably 20-30 with at least that many more in the surrounding area. I also noticed that they were in the madrone tree that I've mentioned previously and that they were eating the berries. It was raining but I decided I had to try for some photos, so I retrieved my camera, went out on the deck beside my office, and despite the rain and overcast began taking photos.
I watched as the robins ate the berries and lamented that this might be my last chance for photos of the madrone berries with birds so I had better make of the opportunity what I could. Since the most common technique was for the robins to fly from a limb, snatch a berry and keep going I was only able to get one photo of a robin with a berry in its mouth, and it wasn't a particularly good one. So you won't see it here.
While I was watching and photographing the robins a very bright (considering the lighting conditions) Varied thrush flew to the pond area and I was able to get several photos of it before it disappeared.
I was taking photos fast and furiously when a good portion of the birds decided to fly out of the yard. It wasn't exactly an explosion so I thought that it probably wasn't an accipiter... but I was wrong! As I puzzled over the birds' relatively sudden departure an accipiter landed in the top of our dead pine tree, having flown there (by my wife's account) from the yew tree on the south side of our house.
There was nothing left in the yard other than the accipiter so I began taking photos of it. As many of the birds seem to do, it realized that I had a clear path to it for my photo so it moved just a few steps to one side so that a small, otherwise insignificant twig would be between it and the camera lens. Ah... the trials and tribulations of a nature photographer!
Unfortunately these photos aren't of very high quality... heavy overcast, rain which you can see n some of the photos and graininess caused by having to push my ISO beyond what I consider tolerable limits. But I'm not giving up the opportunity to tell this story and provide some kind of photographic documentation!
No comments:
Post a Comment