Birding

Snow day today.  Zozer spent the day at her grandma's and I worked from home.  Took two breaks.  One was to shovel the driveway, so I guess you couldn't really call that a break.

The other was to make some birdie pictures.

I am not a birder.  Birders go crazy and photograph only birds.  In strikingly beautiful detail with exquisite color.  Their portfolios are gorgeous, and they're very knowledgeable.

But after awhile, it all starts to blur together.  Everything starts to look the same.  A bird is a bird is a bird.  I like more diversity.  I decided a long time ago to consciously not become a birder.

However.

I do like birds.  Last year I purchased a bird feeder.  It's probably not a good one, technically speaking. But I like the bright yellow color and the meshiness and it takes black sunflower seeds which are good for oilers.  Whatever that means.  So I bought this adorable little yellow feeder and about 800 pounds of birdseed. (I had M with me, and the boy likes nothing more than to buy in bulk, thereby reducing the price-per-seed.)

I put the feeder up and filled it and it swung there for a couple weeks.  No birds.  I was disappointed, but reasoned I couldn't really do a damn thing about it.  Sit out there and call, "Here, birdie birdie birdie!" would probably be fruitless.

Then, in the fall, my feeder's business began to pick up.  I started having to refill the feeder every two weeks, then every week and a half, and then every week.  Now that it's winter, it's much, much more often.

I looked out my office window today: egads!  The feeder was down to about an eighth.  I read somewhere that you shouldn't let it get below a quarter full or you'll lose your birds.  I tried to work, but worried and worried that it was too late.  I had lost my birds.  Finally I decided the distraction was too much so I got all bundled up again, waded through the snow, and refilled my feeder.

Within minutes, I had birds.  Lots and lots of them.  Distraction over birdseed grew into distraction just watching them.  Something about the peacefulness of the world - it's always so quiet after it snows - and these little birds going to town.

I don't have a great telephoto lens.  I have a crappy, plastic-barreled, sounds-impressive zoom that gets out to 300mm and wobbles all over the place when hand-held. Better than nuthin'.  Especially for as little as I go out to 300mm.

So these shots are pretty cruddy from a birder's point of view.  Technically awful and horrific and something I'm sure no self-respecting birder would ever show.

Good thing I'm not one of those.

 

I was trying less for a technically perfect photograph and more for the mood, the feeling, of watching these fat little birds get their fill on a quiet, snowy day.