Birding Big Life: Jan. 29

Sometimes when you go birding, it's just a total bust. You can plan everything and go to places where you've had success in the past, but on the day of it's always up to the birds. That was my experience this past week. During the week I was too busy with work and errands to be able to get out at all, so my only chance was on Saturday. I planned on going to White Oak Conservation area where I typically have fairly good luck finding sparrows in accessible and photogenic locations, but the birds had other plans.

My walk started off alright, with a few American Crows and American Tree sparrows, and I though it would be a fairly birding day. The weather was nice and the sun was out so there was good light for spotting birds and movement, but after picking up a Blue Jay as my third species, the birds just stopped showing up. At first I got a little frustrated. I had driven all the way out to this park and knew that birds utilized it, but where were they?Then I remembered the zoom course that I attended recently hosted by the University of Northern Iowa.

This course featured Chris Helzer, also known as the prairie ecologist across social media, and his approach to nature photography. Chris captures many amazing scenes in nature that aren't what you might typically think of photographing. He captures the art and subtle beauty of shapes and forms, and is able to share the biological story of prairies through close up photos. Now, I don't have the macro lenses that Chris does and can't get as close as he can, but I thought I'd take this walk without birds as an opportunity to slow down and notice a side of nature that I often overlook.

Seed head with a spiral vine growing through it.

I began looking at seed heads and tree bark for interesting shapes and patterns. I also began noticing textures. Then I found a small pond that was frozen over and thought that I'd try my hand at photographing ice bubbles. Unfortunately the ice wasn't very pretty and clear so ice bubbles didn't come out very well, but I did notice some ice windows and attempted to capture the secrets they contained as well.

Ice window formed from the melt around the air pocket of a stick.

I continued on my walk, photographing more seed heads and plant parts. Then I got the idea to try capturing a close-up of some tree bark. There's lots of texture in bark and it can be one of the defining in identifying tree species, so why not draw some attention to the complexity of bark. I found a little Black Cherry tree to practice on. I've always liked the flakey bark of Black Cherry trees and the lichens that grow on them and I'm fairly happy with how my photos came out.

Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) bark with yellow lichen.

As my walk around the lake came to a close, I was able to find a few more species of birds. Black-capped Chickadees were sounding alarm calls, a Bald Eagle soared overhead, and a couple of Red-tailed Hawks were "playing" right above me. It was a moment where I wished that I had a longer lens, as I was using my D780 instead of my P900 and could have captured some great photos of these beautiful hawks.

Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) in flight

The final bird of the day for me was a White-breasted Nuthatch that gave a little "Ank, Ank" call from an old Cottonwood tree while I was photographing pine cones. Although I may not have observed many birds during this outing, it was really nice to slow down and notice nature in a different way. I thank Chris Helzer for presenting his work and photographic perspective. You can see his photography and read about his adventures on his blog, The Prairie Ecologist, or follow him on social media @prairieecologist.