There are quite a few folks here at Open Salon who are going through a very difficult time. Whether it is rehab, treatments for cancer, or bad karma, I wanted to present something to make you smile. To enjoy the beauty of nature. Particularly after my last post, I wanted to provide something uplifting, something to make you want to go for a long walk and just enjoy the sights and sounds around you, to enjoy life.
Here then is the first promised post of photos I've taken around central Vermont. I originally promised twenty-two total split into two sessions. I've added a few more :-D. Some were taken while out walking on a snowmobile trail near my office, some were taken around the town I live in. They describe a diversity in feathered friends better than any words I could use. I hope you enjoy them.
All photos are copyright 2008 by Bill Schwartz, all rights reserved. You can contact me here via OS Message, or send an e-mail to billsvt@gmail.com for outside e-mail if you would like to discuss using any of my photos.
American Goldfinch - there was an entire flock of them, playing hide and seek in the thistle. They spent the whole summer in the marsh out behind a local supermarket (a marsh where I was also able to get my first shot of a deer).
A closer view of a male goldfinch. Females are a khaki green color, very muted in contrast to the flashy bright yellow males.
American Redstart. These gorgeous birds are very quick. They have red-orange sections which contrast beautifully with their black/brown feathers.
Young Blackbird on a tension line. Taken near my house.
*Correction - that is a starling. Thanks to HighLonesome! I listened to the call of a starling and it matches this bird's song to a tee.
Blue Jay. I'm guessing from the head and back feathers that it is either a female or an immature male. Noisy as all get-out, I love to see them in the trees.
Male Cardinal, in an evergreen out behind my office. He was very fickle and would not sit still for very long. This was the best shot he would let me take.
Female Cardinal. She was very shy and wouldn't let me get a profile shot. But she hung around in the trees over my head long enough for me to get a few shots from beneath.
Grey Catbird. This was a surprise shot. This bird was singing out loud, and I was having a tough time tracking him/her. I thought that I had tracked a bluejay at first ,but one with an unusual song. Surprise - once I processed the photo I had no idea what it was. My online expert identified it for me.
Cedar or Bohemian Waxwing, there is not enough detail to be certain. Shot from about fifty yards away on the snowmobile trail, s/he was pretty high up in a tree.
Cedar waxwing. This one was kind enough to sit still for me. Taken on a walking path near my old office,with the river in the background.
Chickadee. Taken on a walking path near my old office.
Cooper's Hawk. I was out for an afternoon walk near my house with my wife and daughter, when I heard this commotion overhead. I saw a bird, not sure what kind but could have been a pigeon, dive-bombing and harassing this hawk. I had no clue, until I offloaded the shot, that the hawk had just snatched a bird in mid-flight. These are truly amazing predators.
Next up: Ducks, a cormorant, an osprey, robins, hummingbirds, great blue herons, wild turkeys, and one that I'm not quite sure of.
Hope you enjoyed these.
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Comments
I am a walker of quiet places, a student of life outdoors.
Vermont is one of my favourite states and the gray Catbird is an old friend. The catbird is a mimic, he steals other's songs and often tweaks them a bit. You heard exactly right. He , and likely it was a he, defends his territory and frequently with loud song. Bluejays, being what they are, scare just about everything away. It is a favoured song of the catbird for exactly that reason. Did he 'mew' for you too?
Remarkable photos! I cannot imagine being either quick enough or still enough to catch what you did.
Dean
Are you sure the blackbird isn't a starling?
Dean - Thanks very much! Particularly for the extra info on catbirds - this was the first one I'd ever seen before and I haven't seen one since.
High Lonesome - You nailed it. I went online and listened to the starling's call, and it matches my recollection of this bird's song. A starling it is, with thank!
Thank you for the nature break ... I'll be back time & time again!!!
PS ~ you're a great photographer (as well as writer). I especially love the American Redstart (3rd pic). Totally cool angle!!!
here's a sample:
Vermont is a beautiful place, a postcard. New Hampshire looks like Arkansas with snow.
Vermont was home to Abe Lincoln's son and the von Trapp family. New Hampshire gave us the lunatic publisher Loeb, the theif Sherman Adams, athe perposterous Sununu and a member of the Manson gang.
Vermont passed a Clean Air act before the environment became trendy. New Hampshire wrote a constitutional amendment raising the IQ of its citizens by 50 points so they could communicate with their house pets.
Vermont has several nifty towns like Brattleboro and Montpelier. New Hamshire's largest city - Manchester - has a main street that concludes in a dead end.
funny, funny, funny!!! I love NE!!! *New England, not Nebraska
But now that I live closer in to a city (about 8 miles for Seattle center) one thing I note is a relative dearth of songbirds. I really enjoyed your pictures - even the Cardinal.
rated
Do you know about the marvelous site What Bird?
It allows you to identify birds through a series of eliminations. It's great.
1_I_M - Thanks for the link, that was pretty amusing. :-D
Michael Rodgers - thank you, but everyone is in my league. I've been shooting for about two years now, and just this year moved up from a point-and-shoot to a digital SLR. If you want to see some fabulous shots, check out bbd's blog (that's Barry). Barry is an awesome photographer. In fact there are lots of great photographers here, I won't try to name them all because I'm bound to leave someone out. Search for tags of PHOTO and PHOTOGRAPHY if you want to see some of the others.
John - thanks. But I think you're going to enjoy my next set even more. There are lots of songbirds around here, I'm sure I've only captured a small handful. I like the big fishers much more, I must admit.
fingerlakeswanderer - thanks very much. I use whatbird quite a bit, but when I get stumped I go to AllExperts.com, where I typically try to direct a query to Roger Lederer. The guy really knows his birds.
Lisa - you're welcome. This is a hobby that I've come to love. I find that using the right exposure and having a camera that takes a VR lens helps me a lot. So, based on your comment I guess you and flw are close to each other.
Laura, thanks. I'm in Washington county. I spend my days in Montpelier.
Mary - You soar, lady. Many thanks. :-D
I'm totally serious, I could feel myself relaxing with each new picture.
Thanks. And Bravo!
I just noticed that not only did this post get an EP but it's on the cover too. Thank you, people, for your part in making that happen. :-D
KIDDING... Already weighed in, would double-thumb if I could. I am totally not a nature person, but this just blew me away. Again, wow.
I don't want to hear any of that "everyone is in my league" stuff. These are wonderful.
Not only that, but they're rotating your shots. Nice!
BEAUTIFUL!
rated
Just returned from a really stressful sculpture hauling trip to Chicago and i looked at this,...Awwww I am made whole again. No more stress, only joy and wonder. I love our Blue Jays. They are the loudest and obnoxious to other birds, but they have so much character. The Cardinals have a sweet song, and they are most beautiful. Our Kestrels are famous around here for culling the small wrens (poor little turkeys). And the Catbirds here like to imitate other animals in their songs!
Thank you Bill!
Gorgeous pictures, Bill, thank you.
Loved them all but was especially pleased by the juvenile starling. If we had ultraviolet vision like birds do, it would be the loveliest bird of them all.
rated and breathed deep...
John Leonard - First, I want to see some shots of those feral parrots. That sounds too cool, although I imagine it might get tiresome after a while. Secondly, you must be getting anxious now - less than ten days? This week, the weather has been unseasonably cold, almost like Vermont is gearing up to welcome you home. :-D
Rob - They're rotating my shots? So far I've only seen the starling. Or is this on BS as well? I don't subscribe to BS (*ducks and throws up his arms to avoid the stones*) so I have no idea.
Greg - That B&B actually does exist here, I have gone past it many times over the years. But come on up anyway, I'm sure there's one for sale somewhere here.
Gary - Thanks, man. I have yet to catch a kestrel of my own, though I have seen their aftermath at times.
Joan K - thanks so much. I can promise you that, should it still be cold tomorrow, I'll have a follow-up post with more birds. :-D
Susan - I particularly like that shot as well, the jay was sitting on a lower branch and I was slightly uphill from the tree, so I had a great angle. Birds don't always afford me the profile shots that I prefer, so I have to get creative most times.
merwoman - Feel free to consider this cardinal yours. :-D When I lived in New York, the most exotic bird I ever saw was an owl that was passing through. Everything else was pretty much sparrows and pigeons. So, living here (and having developed a love of photography, pun intended :-D) has been a real treat for me.
Roger - I heartily agree. So far, I've had to twice chase birds out of the house: one was in the attic, and I have no idea how he got in there, and one actually managed to fly down the chimney of our (now long gone) woodstove. He sat in the stovepipe most of the evening, apparently couldn't figure out how to fly back up. I woke up the next morning to the sound of frantic wings in my bedroom. After shooing him out an open window, I went downstairs to find the heavy steel door of the woodstove open. How he managed to get it open, I'll never know.
Lea and Stephanie K. - thank you very much. Living in a very rural state has given me a great appreciation for nature.
Steph - I can't tell you how many of those same photos I have too. I take on average about 600 photos a week, most relegated to the electronic wastebasket that is my external hard drive. I post a tiny fraction of what I take, because I am decidedly picky about what I think is good enough to post. Thanks very much for the very high compliment.
Great! I'm so happy for you man!
Cathy - Thanks very much, I hope you'll be back tomorrow for the next installment (*shameless plug for future post*). :{D
Gordon - Thank you very much. There are two things you need (besides a camera) to take pictures of hummingbirds:
1) A Hummingbird Feeder (to entice them over)
2) An immense amount of patience.
After several aborted attempts, I think they finally got used to my flash going off and simply had their drinks while I shot pictures. To be fair, I'm only posting one hummingbird pic tomorrow - it's the best one I was able to get.
I had a lot of Amer goldfinches.
I called them minnowbucket birds because U had a white/yellow/black minnowbucket.
We have chickadees, nuthatches, bluejay and a few others here in winter.
There are some cardinals however, not many because most people here seem to be lutheran.
Oh, go ahead laugh.