Backyard Birds

December 29, 2018

I went for a very long walk today, camera in hand, through the woods and fields of the Kalamazoo Nature Center hoping to find something interesting to photograph—perhaps a hawk or an eagle or a pileated woodpecker. Nuthin’! That’s not to say it wasn’t a beautiful and relaxing walk… but I might have enjoyed it a tad bit more had I gotten something more exciting than a sparrow and a woodpecker!

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I must confess, though, that before even leaving the house, I had taken well over a hundred pictures just from our back deck—chickadees, finches, cardinals, woodpeckers, mourning doves, nuthatches, juncos, and blue jays.

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And, even though these birds are just garden-variety-backyard-birds, I enjoyed the task immensely—because they were all near at hand and this allowed for some really nice close-ups. Once I got my fill of stationary shots, I tried my hand at ‘birds in flight’. Not surprisingly, that skill is going to need a lot more work! Those little songbirds are mega-fast,  while I, on the other hand, am not!! (It’s not at all like following the leisurely flight patterns of a hawk!)

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My next project (besides birds in flight) will be backyard birds in a snow storm! (If it ever stops raining!)

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