Bluebird

The leaves are disappearing quickly from the trees, which brings to mind this picture I made four or five autumns ago. I was on my front porch, and this bluebird was perched in the huge willow oak that graces our front yard. I love the gold leaves framing the bird’s bright blue and cinnamon colors.

There are many beautiful North American birds we rarely, if ever, get to see here in Atlanta (I’m looking at you, Baltimore Oriole and Scarlet Tanager). But no bird is more gorgeous than the Eastern Bluebird. I’m happy to say they are regulars at the feeders in my yard. I keep one feeder stocked with already-shelled sunflower seeds, because I know it’s their favorite. I also keep a nesting box for them, and although wrens and chickadees often beat them to it, I’ll get a family of bluebirds every few springs or so. I’ll even buy dried meal worms and put them in a special feeder when the bluebird babies hatch.

Bluebirds are year-’round residents here in Atlanta, and seeing the bright sunlight on their bright blue backs still a dazzles me and makes my heart glad. Here’s looking at you, kid.

Where the birds are

One aspect of birding I love is the travel. If you want to see birds, you’ve got to go where the birds are. So birding is a wonderful way to to see new places, and to revisit old favorites. One spot I never tire of is the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island, FL.

A note here about this spot’s namesake. He was a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist for the Des Moines Register, and an ardent conservationist who helped expand he National Wildlife Refuge system. He also helped found and was the first president of the National Wildlife Federation.

The first time I went to Ding Darling, I added about a dozen new birds to my life list. And even if I don’t see a new bird there, I love seeing the egrets, herons, roseate spoonbills and all their friends. Southwest Florida is one of the best regions in the nation for birding; especially in the winter. Not far from Ding Darling is the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, a National Audubon Society Sanctuary that is home to the largest nesting colony of federally endangered Wood Storks in the country.

If you’d like to recommend a birding spot, I’d love to hear from you!

If I had to pick a favorite....

I’m sometimes asked if I have a favorite bird or kind of bird. I don’t. But if I were forced to choose, I’d probably go with hummingbirds. They’re the only birds that can hover or fly backwards. They are small but mighty; ferocious defenders of their nests and territories and able to fly hundreds of miles over water during migration. And if you travel outside the Eastern U.S. — where the ruby-throated hummingbird is pretty much all you’ll see— you can find hummingbirds with all sorts of brilliant, iridescent colors, such as the Purple-throated Mountain Gem pictured below. I took this photo on our 2012 trip to Costa Rica, when we were traveling with our dear friends Debbie and Eugene. This little guy resting a few feet away from some feeders set up near the Monteverde National Park entrance.

More than 600 kinds of birds live in Costa Rica, many of which never come as far north as the U.S. But even if you’re not a birder, Costa Rica is a wonderful place to vacation. It’s easy to get to, friendly, not expensive, and all kinds of beautiful with mountains and beaches and cloud forests and year-’round warm weather. I cherish every memory of our 12 day trip there, but especially the fun I had sharing the vacation with people I love so much.

It started with the Booby

My photography passion started in 2007 when our dear friend Barb offered us a chance to join her and her daughter on the trip to the Galapagos Islands. She knew I loved birds, and knew the Galapagos was a special place for birders. There are 24 birds endemic to the Galapagos—they don’t live anywhere else. Famous among them are the so-called Darwin’s Finches, the birds that Darwin found on his famous trip to the Galapagos, and which figure prominently is his theory of natural selection.

But perhaps the best-known of the Galapagos birds is the blue-footed booby. I wanted to enhance my love of birding by taking pictures of them, so I bought a good DSLR camera with two interchangeable lenses for the trip. I figured it was a once-in-a-lifetime trip, so I should get a really good camera. And the blue-footed booby was the first bird I saw there.

The boobies have no natural predators, so you can walk right up to them. A booby chick walked up to me, the way a puppy might. And if you’re really lucky, you will get to see it raining boobies. That’s what the local naturalists call it when a flock of the birds hover about 50 feet over the water, then dive straight down, hitting the water with loud “splats,” and catching fish in their open beaks as the swim to the surface.

The Galapagos will always have a special place in my heart. I hope you’re all lucky enough to go there someday.

Labor Day weekend at Tybee

I grew up in Savannah, so I spent lots of summer days at Tybee.  When I was a child, my grandparents had a beach house.  Now, several of my closest friends have homes there, and we love visiting with them at the beach.  We were there for the Labor Day weekend.  I got up early a few mornings to take sunrise pictures on the beach.  But the weather and the fun we were having conspired to keep me from also getting some nice shots at sunset.  Next time!