Ready for My Close-up…by Brad Marks

Welcome to February everyone! Well, as of last Saturday, we are officially back home – our winter southern migration has come to an end. Thankfully, Ol’ Man Winter took pity and welcomed us back with rather nice weather – at least for this time of the year in the Midwestern tundra. Have to say I am rather exhausted from our extended southern stay. Not sure if that is the results of daily nonstop birding or having to haul this damn boat anchor around ..while daily nonstop birding. Need to take a few days to recover and start getting everything back in order from the trip – emails to read (6,600 to be exact), transfer all the photos to NAS (727G worth) and a host of other things sure to numb the mind. One bright spot to mention, I made it to 12th on the top 100 Texas Birders list and shockingly 79th on the top US Birders list! The former will fall now that we have left that great state, but we can continue to work on the overall stats (work being code for I’ll continue birding as normal and just check in from time to time to see where I happen to be ha). While I get things back in order, Brad is going to take the helm and bring you an outing from a MUCH warmer time.

Take it away Brad…

After Brian and I successfully completed the world’s first ever International Warbler Watch and Walk in the Woods or IW4 (link here), I spent a morning with my friend, Ray, in his back yard.  Ray’s photography style specializes in his kids, and close-up photos of nature.  He has dozens of projects going on simultaneously and occasionally, just occasionally, I can get him to “focus” long enough for a photo walk in the woods.  In reality, the walk was mostly in the wooded ravine in his back yard.  The general area where we both live is on the edge of a bluff overlooking the Illinois River.  Most of the houses are surrounded by ravines and woods full of wildlife, both furred and feathered.  Wooded lot lines get all confused when ravines are involved, which is a polite way to say we wandered a bit.

Hit the jump to read more about our ravine wanderings.

The yellow breast blended in nearly perfectly with the greenish-yellow leaves of Spring.  At first, I thought it was just a quirky leaf.  But when it moved on the twig to hide, sort of, behind another twig, I knew it wasn’t foliage. 

This bird seemed to be staring directly at us.  Not wanting to spook it, I slowly raised the camera to my eye.  At that point, Ray noticed I was looking at something else and not paying very much attention to what he was saying.  I don’t think my random “uh-huh’s” were doing the trick.  He followed my camera’s gaze into the trees.  This little bird was perched only a few feet off the ground from our perspective, but tens of feet in the air over the ravine from its perspective.

Not wanting to take the time to look it up, or to start Merlin to listen in, I started firing away with my camera.  This was a Great Crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus), not a +1 at this time.  However, these were some of the best personality photos I have of this grey and yellow bird. 

At this point the Flycatcher is probably wondering what that large round glass was doing pointed in its general direction.  It was probably also wondering whether or not I’ll following it deeper into the woods.  I did.

The Great Crested breeding range is the eastern half of the US plus a little bit into Canada north of Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana.  They don’t seem to frequent anything west of the Rockies.

As Brian has posted in the past, photographing a bird hiding in twigs can be challenging.  The slightest movement of the camera focus point right or left or up or down usually finds a twig instead of the actual subject.  Some of the photos published in this story are the case in point.  Most of the photos that didn’t make it into the story have some nice twigs in very sharp focus.

I’m not sure if the Flycatcher is trying to hide, or even sees the twigs that keep getting in the way of my photos.  Though it does seem to have one eye squarely on me, so I’m going with the hiding/camouflage theory at this point.  Flycatchers are normally found in treetops.  I was lucky to find this one at nearly eye level for me.  Remember, Ray and I were standing on the edge of a ravine.

Even though the name suggests they eat only flying insects, a Great Crested Flycatcher is also known to eat small fruit.  It will then regurgitate the pits as it travels about; a very symbiotic way to spread fruit seeds to start other fruit trees.  I consider that a win-win for the trees and the birds.  Just remember to keep your mouth closed when you look up in the woods.

The Flycatcher finally took pity on me and posed out in the open for a reference-style photo.

And then in a flurry of flapping, it was gone.  I think it took me longer to tell this story than the Flycatcher was perched on the twig.

With the bird gone, Ray and I finally started our Warbler Watch and Walk in the Woods since we already had a bird in the tin.

Thank you for reading.  If you want to see more Great Crested Flycatcher photos, please visit here.

Credits:

Thanks again to Jan for proofreading and editing.