An excellent example of a double entendre if there ever was one! Let me explain…
When you read the heading of this new post I’m sure that you thought I was soliciting funds for my blog site. But what I’m actually soliciting are pieces of wood that I can rotate into and out of the site where I perform much of my photography!
On 10/2/2014 I ran into a friend during my morning walk in Washington Park. He persuaded me to accompany him to his property to search for “staging sticks” that I might be able to use around my watercourse. We spent the better part of an hour touring his property scouting for pieces of wood. We came up with about three pieces that I could use and as soon as I got back home I changed out the staging sticks around my watercourse. I resolved to obtain some photos of birds on the sticks he had furnished to show my appreciation for his time and effort with regard to his donation.
My intention was to take a late morning nap (I had risen at 4am) but I looked out the window and the yard was full of birds, including one or more Golden-crowned kinglets. Priorities being what they were, I grabbed my camera, my monopod and my chair and set up near our watercourse. It wasn’t long before the birds returned from my brief interruption. For the next couple of hours I took photos, then a nap, and then returned to the yard for more photos. Two hundred and forty-five (245) photos later (!) I called it quits and left to meet friends for dinner. After returning from dinner I managed to perform preliminary processing on all the photos, paring them down to 104 “keepers”.
So all of the photos you see below are birds photographed on 10/2/2014 located either on the donated sticks or with the donated sticks in the background. I am very grateful for the donations and if you have any pieces of wood you would like to donate to the cause I would be glad to consider them. I must warn you, however, that I am very particular as to the wood I use. There are many factors that must go into my selection and they are too complicated to go into here. However, if you are interested from a photography or intellectual standpoint let me know… I’m always ready to share experience and knowledge.
For the non-birders out there, identifications are as follow:
Juvenile male House sparrow
Male Yellow-rumped warbler of the Audubon race
Yellow-rumped warbler of the Audubon race
Golden-crowned sparrow (one of our first returnees from the breeding season)
Male Red crossbill (!)
Yellow-rumped warbler of the Audubon race
Chestnut-backed chickadee
