We pulled out the digital camera last week and got it dusted off and all charged up. I haven’t used this thing in almost a decade (which is about when we got smart phones, and it made more sense to use those for photos). But photos on the phone never seem as interesting as the photos with the digital camera. Maybe the phone’s too easy. Maybe we don’t compose as carefully. Maybe we fall into ‘selfie’ mode with phones.
Pulling out the digital camera, and lugging it around, is different. Like, you know you’re there to find things to photograph. Intention. There’s an intention when you carry a camera.
Phones are easy, cameras are intentional.
So, I’m back to the digital camera after ten years. I’m brushing up on the old thing with birds, partly to learn the species once and for all. Finches and sparrows and all the rest look pretty much the same to me, or rather, they’re hard for me to identify by sight because they’re behaving the same. Yard birds, flitting, eating.
But hey, intentional photography is a good way to learn. That’s what’s been going on here, the last few days.
Here’s a California Towhee, in the shrubby chaparral near us. It’s a kind of sparrow, according to the internet.
Pretty, yeah? Kind of nondescript, sure, which is why I have trouble telling birds apart, but pretty. And not to be confused with a Phoebe, which looks nothing like a Towhee (the Phoebe was black and white). The Phoebe was hanging around the same field, and it had a similar flight behavior.
Anyway, this Towhee has a band on its leg, which I only noticed once I was going through the photos at home. The band led me down a different rabbit hole to discover where we keep banding stations around here. As near as I can figure, the closest one is twenty miles away. ! In Zuma Canyon. Good job, Towhee! Nice traveling. Here’s to a long life, little friend.
There were also house finches nesting in this area, and a scrubjay, and a turkey vulture overhead. Many birds in the chapparal.
So the next day, I went down to the Pacific Ocean, where the Pacific Flyway runs from Alaska to Patagonia. Millions of birds migrate along this route every season. I imagine some birds live here year round. Here’s an osprey, a type of fish hawk. A raptor, like eagles, falcons, and hawks.
This one was warming up in the morning sun on top of a telephone pole. It’s looking toward the ocean, probably thinking about its next meal. Look at that beak! Those talons! It flew off and didn’t return all morning.
And here’s one more bird to round out the post. A Great Blue Heron, also at the Pacific Flyway.
It looks wistful, no? That’s what I love about this one. It’s questioning its life choices and wondering what the meaning in it all is.
Herons are wading birds, hence the long legs. They stroll around in the water looking for fish. That sharp beak grabs those fish with no trouble at all.
So, the camera is back, baby. It’s an old hobby, one I never got into 100% but always enjoyed, every time, always was eager to see if the photos caught what I had seen. These three came close.
What hobbies have you returned to recently?
P. L. TAVORMINA 