Wonderful Night Shooting Birds

Wednesday night everything seemed to work. I scouted out this little patch of woods/scrubby secondary growth area and noticed that there was an abundance of Indigo Buntings there. Also present there were a few other of my favorite birds like Common Yellowthroat and Brown Thrasher. So with just a spectacularly beautiful evening of weather, I thought it would be a nice night to take some pictures. The buntings were everywhere in this small patch. I would have thought them to be territorial, but they seemed more communal as they zipped to and from. Seemed like every tree had a singing Bunting. This is a very good thing for a photographer/birder! I managed a couple nice shots.



Sometimes they would be low like this guy and sometimes higher in the tree, like this next example. This does cause problems, as it requires different settings on the camera. Sometimes I think, "I'm only going to shoot at one level and if the bird is not at that level, I'm not shooting" So far that has not worked. So, I come home with lots of silhouettes, or blown out pictures. The background is a little blown on this one, but it’s not bad. I think I’ll take it.

So now I'm happy, ready to head home. I'm getting hungry and I'm tired of picking ticks off me! So I head for the car. As I'm almost there I see this little baby Song sparrow, looking closer, there's lots of little baby Song Sparrows. Hopping around on this mulch bed. So I decide, why not set up here. Surly one of these little guys will present a shot. Well this ended up being the place. While I'm watching these little guys move incredible fast, who shows up on a perfect little perch not more than 10 feet from me, but one of the resident buntings!

Then the adult Song Sparrow puts an appearance on this same perch.

I had 2 more memorable visitors while I was sitting here. The first was a Cedar Waxwing, and then a Willow Flycatcher. What a night. I went home very hungry and very happy.

I did not end up getting any great pictures of the baby Song Sparrows. They were moving so fast and blended into the background so well that I never really got locked on, but that's ok!