Backyard Birds
Text and Photos submitted by Ron Long
I have decided that I am officially suffering from cabin fever. As a photographer, getting out with my camera has typically been the way I deal with those claustrophobic feelings but now, trying to observe the “stay at home” directives that we hear multiple times every day, that option is considerably reduced.
Bird feeders to the rescue.
I started thinking about ways to photograph the birds coming to my feeders. The main problem being – if I wanted natural looking photos I had to avoid showing the feeders.
The solution was to put up appropriate perches, small for the Anna’s and larger for the rest, keeping in mind what background would appear behind any bird on that perch.
After that it just required patience. It took awhile for most of the birds to start using the perches but they eventually did. The exception was the Stellers Jay. He was around but always kept in the bushes. When I set up a perch just outside his favourite haunt he took to it almost immediately. Within ten minutes I had the perfect photo of a Stellers Jay.
Many of these pictures were taken while I was literally sitting at my kitchen table. I normally would not choose to shoot through glass but it was far too cold to have the sliding patio door open for the hours I spent there. When I started I wasn’t really expecting anything very great from the photography – it was just fun. So I started shooting through the glass and quickly discovered that, as long as I avoided reflections, the glass did not reduce the quality of the photos one little bit.
So for many days I was happily occupied and entertained by the feathered activity outside the window – the perfect antidote for cabin fever.
But then a new challenge arose. How was I going to get a natural looking photo of the Pileated Woodpecker that was regularly coming to my suet cage?
Luckily, I have a wood-burning fireplace.
Stored in my shed I had a few short lengths of five inch diameter tree trunk. The perfect solution. I drilled a couple of holes in one of the pieces of firewood, stuffed the holes with suet and hung the log in place of the suet cage. The log was turned such that the camera could not see the holes but the bird would be perfectly posed for the photo. Once the log was in place the woodpecker showed up in no time and appeared to like this arrangement much better than the old suet cage. He came several times every day and gave me all the photo opportunities I could hope for. It wasn’t long before all the woodpeckers in the area discovered the suet log and I soon had Flickers, Downys and Hairys visiting regularly as well as a Red-breasted Nuthatch.
I was getting great pictures but more than that I was thoroughly enjoying just being there with the birds. In pretty short order I had perfectly good pictures of all of them but I still sit there. I spend hours at the kitchen table telling myself I am waiting for even better shots.
I believe I can keep up this self-delusion for as long as the travel ban lasts.
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