HOPE IS A THING WITH FEATHERS

I photograph wildlife. Before 2020, I had directed most of my attention to mammals and birds of prey. But the pandemic limited my geographic options to New Jersey and New York to get to where the wild things are. In April 2020, after a month and a half of quarantine, I picked up my camera and headed outside to a local wildlife area where I had had some success finding owls.

Unsuccessful at this time, I reluctantly decided to go home. As I was leaving however I saw a Red Fox trotting down the road with a chipmunk in her mouth heading for her four hungry kits. Turning around, I was able to get off some quick shots and I returned for a few days to follow their antics.

While I waited in the car using it as a blind, Spring was blossoming around me. The trees burst and birds sang. And I noticed what I had not previously paid attention to in my zeal to document four-legged animals: the Eastern Bluebird. Common yet dazzling.

This is how I began my over 2-year pandemic journey photographing birds. What began as a way to continue my wildlife photography pursuits during a lockdown, still endures for me. Since the beginning of my pandemic project, I photographed 400 new birds. And that first Eastern Bluebird led to a full color spectrum of birds during the pandemic and beyond: the Northern Cardinal, the Yellow Warbler, and the Painted Bunting.

I started out with birds on a stick, and eventually attempted to get creative (not easy with skittish subjects that have the advantage of being able to fly away). For example, I photographed the Vermilion Flycatcher shown at the top of this article with  backlighting at a riverbank in Arizona.

From a local wildlife refuge to a new appreciation of my neighborhood (residence to sparrows, cardinals, blue jays, more sparrows, robins, more sparrows, finches) to points tropical and boreal. Grasslands and wetlands. Arid and humid. Avian biodiversity is as stunning as the song of a male spring warbler passionately singing for its mate and as the tail of a tropical bird.

In flight, primary feathers are responsible for thrust to propel the bird forward. When I opened my viewfinder to birding, the birds propelled me to better and more interesting photography.

*Thanks to Emily Dickinson for the title of this blog entry