Birds. What great lengths they will go to to keep me from taking their picture.
They camouflage themselves (on purpose, I'm sure) by insisting on blending into their surroundings.
A whole flock of them settle to the ground right in front of my eyes, but fly as soon as I touch the camera (all but one indigo bunting, who was obviously a little slow).
They drum on the trees and sing in the forest, but never ever show their faces.
They hide in mossy trees (but this time, Mr Cardinal, I caught a glimpse of you anyway).
Birds. They hide their eyes. They turn their backs on me.
They stay just out of camera range.
They blend into the water where they're feeding (did I say something like that already?).
But it is all worth it. Because we are outdoors. Birding. Exploring. Enjoying the wonderful weather. And sometimes a professional birder (real or virtual) helps this amateur identify a bird that is new to me. Life is good!
( A birder at Honeymoon Beach told me that this bird is a Marbled Godwit. He was way more excited about this guy than he was the skimmers that I took a million pictures of (here). Thanks also to all of you — my virtual birding experts — who told me the bird in the background of my skimmer picture was a ruddy turnstone!
Birders, whether virtual or standing right beside me in real life, are the most helpful sharing people in the world!
FOR: OUR WORD TUESDAY (very late … we were away yesterday) and WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY.
Thank you to the whole great host team at OW and to Stuart at WBW.
We appreciate all visitors and commenters! Thank you.