It seems that when I go out into the field on a
single-minded quest for a target bird, more often than not I am
disappointed. For the past couple of weeks, I have wanted to see a
warbler. Any old warbler would do. Until I took up photography a few
years ago, "see" meant exactly that. More correctly it meant "see and
identify." I must admit that by "see," I now mean "photograph."
In
the case of migrating warblers in the fall, this sharply narrows down
the criteria, even with the help of 10X glasses and a supple neck. Trees
are full of leaves and warblers prefer to be high up and on the wrong
side of both. Now I have a stiff neck and my cataractous eyes force me to depend upon automatic
focus if I want a clear picture.
Of course, some photos seem to be
gifts from the "warbler gods." Last week, this female Chestnut-sided
Warbler posed in perfect light, so close by that I had to back off to
focus on her. (This image is cropped directly from the RAW file without
any other editing)
Why
do I now have this compulsion to package birds' images into files that
consist of nothing but ones and zeroes? The world does not need any more
bird photos. Birds must be the most photographed natural objects other
than babies and waterfalls. If I want to see a great bird picture I can
just Google for it.
It should be enough for me to simply take in
the great beauty of plumage, song and movement. And it always was,
until a 300 millimeter image stabilized lens attached to a 1.4x extender
and a progression of three generations of digital single-lens reflex
cameras with a monopod and accessory pack were added to the weight I
carry into the field. Why do I wish I were carrying this burden when an
eagle flies over as I am walking to the supermarket? It is just another
eagle, and pretty far away at that.
I will not attempt to answer
my rhetorical questions except to say that photography has added an
important dimension to my appreciation of birds and nature. For one
thing, it has allowed me to start my life list of bird sightings all
over. I don't tabulate them or keep a spreadsheet, but I copy them into a
set on FLICKR. My "Life List of Bird Photos" contains
261 images, including some omissions and some duplicates that I must weed out.
Many
of the images are poor, and I plan to replace them with better shots if
I get them and remember to go back to the photo set. It is less than
half way to the total on my ABA area list of species sighted. Of course
it sets out an impossible challenge, as I am running out of time to try
to match both lists. But the quest goes on, to find new species to add.
As I write this, I realize I have omitted this Yellow-breasted Chat.
Binoculars
can somewhat compensate for back-lighting that causes my camera to
produce monochromatic silhouettes. With binoculars it is possible to
piece together momentary glimpses of a bird as moves through the
branches. On the other hand, photos sometimes reveal details missed in
the real-time sighting. More than once, I found a "new" species after I
looked at the photos back home. That is what happened when I took the
above photo of the chat. I heard a strange call in the dense shrubbery,
but all I saw was a Prairie Warbler. Only after I got home did I find
that one of my shots of a partially obscured yellow blob actually
revealed the chat. (Click on photos for more details and additional
views).
My first "real" sightings are seared into memory. As a
kid, I did not need binoculars to witness the courtship of a pair of
Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. From the seclusion of a thicket, I watched the
male display on the ground in an open area, singing all the while. And
so on-- my first Common Redpolls, Red-headed Woodpeckers, Peregrine
Falcons ("Duck Hawks")... Now, I have a second chance to experience the
thrill of "discovering" an old friend, and a few of my new species have
been simultaneous additions to both the sightings and the photo lists.
My most recent new "Life Bird Photographed" was this Yellow-throated Vireo, seen only a few days ago.
New
additions to the list usually reflect my travels to more distant
places. Among other recent entries were a Rufous-crowned Sparrow, seen
last November in the Albuquerque's eastern foothills...
...and on the same day nearby, a Black-throated Sparrow.
A
spring visit to Alaska in 2011 added 16 newly photographed birds, but
only one was also a true "lifer," this Red-faced Cormorant on Katchimak
Bay.
I had seen Pelagic Cormorants before, but this one was special because it provided my first image of this species.
Pigeon Guillemots seemed to be engaged in friendly banter on Gull Island in Katchimak Bay.
Though I had seen both common puffin species previously, I was able to get my first photos of a Tufted Puffin on Gull Island.
A Horned Puffin splattered across the bow of our sightseeing boat on Resurrection Bay, out of Seward.
This
pair of courting Mew Gulls in Denali National Park, shot through the
side window of a bus, was one of my favorite new additions to the list.
One
of the earliest entries on my life list of photographed birds antedates
my first DSLR. It is a "two-for" taken from behind the window of our
former home in New Mexico with a 2 megapixel point-and-shoot through my
Kowa scope-- a Pinyon Jay and a Western Scrub-Jay.
Visit ROSYFINCH RAMBLINGS
Great post and marvelous images, Ken. For me, too, I only "own' the bird when I've got a photo of it. Looking at those photos, which I archive on my website, makes me relive the moments and preserves them for the future.
ReplyDeleteVery nice post and pictures Ken. I have started doing a similar thing with photos, just not as formal yet. ONe of those projects I plan to sort through soon.
ReplyDeleteAs a bird photographer I only count birds if I get an image of them, I don't keep a list, just the files. If they are only documentary shots and poor quality they don't go on my site.
ReplyDeleteBut, I revel in the new birds I don't get images of too because for me it isn't just about photography it is also about celebrating nature.
Well said Ken, you've expressed the pleasures of many the bird watcher and photographer. It has been a pleasure this year to see my photographed species list catch up to my regular lifer list, and then be able to relive the sightings and share them with others.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mia Ken. My life list is my image files. I like to be able to remember the time, place and circumstance I created the image. So I get more bang for my buck, looking at the beauty of nature and remembering how I got there!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this post Ken and it motivates me to do something. For the last couple of years I have been taking lots of pictures of birds, but I've barely organized them and it's to the point now that I don't even know what I have. I figure I should organize them now and create a folder for each species and organize them by taxonomy or something. Then I can start my birds photographed life list.
ReplyDeleteWonderful post! Terrific photographs! Surprisingly, my photographed list is just about even with my life list. I really love to look over old bird photographs, it brings me right back into the experience where I took the original shot.
ReplyDelete