So my last couple of posts have not had pictures in them. Bad! But that was only because, inspired by Corey, I’ve been working so hard on my photography skillz. See?
Cooper’s Hawk plucks Mourning Dove
More field marks
Cleaning her beak
Haha, just kidding, those are stills from a video my brother took, my photos still look like this:
But I really am back in New York, and a Cooper’s Hawk really did take a Mourning Dove from my parents’ feeder in dramatic fashion. Also dramatic: The sheer number of American Goldfinches around, the increase in the overwintering population of Tufted Titmice in this area (I never saw one growing up), the amount of snow we got this week, my surprise at discovering that birdfood manufacturers put artificial berry flavor but no real berries in their berry suet cakes.
Now, if some dramatic rarities could just show up in the New York City area while I’m still at home. Or I could get a real dramatic uptick in my photography skills.
If you want to improve your bird photography skills one of the best things you can do is just go out and take pictures. Common birds make perfectly good subjects for that purpose. You can practice trying to catch them engaging in interesting behavior or interacting with each other as well as capturing good portraits of them. And you never know, you might come across some dramatic rarity while watching them.
hahaha. A very Corey post. Hope you get to see something special in NYS while you’re home.