Midwinter Birds and Blue Skies

My friend the Norther Mockingbird who seems to hang out year round.

We’re having a pretty typical winter here in the Northeast, with temps in the twenties and low thirties and lows in the single digits and teens. There’ve been a couple of minor snow events that have resulted in snow days off from school. We continue to do our best at school to educate the kids who are in and to catch up those who have been out due to covid. With several of my kiddos out the past two weeks, I’ve appreciated the slightly lighter load while I tend to PPT meetings and paperwork (major time hogs that detract from teaching but are important nonetheless). 

On my days off, I have been drawn to the outdoors with my camera in hand. I finally had some time to listen a bit further to an instructional video on how to operate my DSLR, resulting in sharper focus on my subjects. (Yay!)  All of these birds are quite common for this time of year, but I’m always on the look-out for new species. I think I’ll have to visit other locales to find the rarer birds. Yet, rare or not, I love them all. The field sparrow was new to me, with his delicate frame, light yellow beak, and circles of white around the eyes.

White-breasted Nuthatch

White-throated Sparrow

Field Sparrow

Blue Jay

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Song Sparrow

This one’s a bit hard to tell, but I think it’s a Northern Flicker

I am slowly learning what this business of bird photography entails—-patience and persistence..lol! When I first go out with my camera and heavy lens, I set up my tripod and, if I’m lucky, there may be a few brave birds who stick around. Otherwise, most of them scatter and then I wait. After about 20 minutes, they begin to reappear, and that’s when I need to be very still and ultra aware of the tiniest of movements up in the large trees, nearby shrubbery, grasses, etc. 

And sometimes while I’m waiting for the birds to appear, I practice adjusting the camera settings and focal lengths to take various pictures of the surrounding landscape. 

It’s a lazy Saturday afternoon. I’m sitting here by the fireplace looking out the back sunroom windows. We have another bright, sunny day, and I know that I will be lured outside, once again, lugging my gear to the nearby field. The sunshine will warm my back. I will turn on my Merlin app to see what birdsong clues will help me identify less familiar birds (as was the case with the field sparrow), and who knows….maybe today will be the day when a hawk comes gliding in to land on one of the large overhanging branches, and I will be ready! ;-)