These are the best from about 35 shots I took in rapid succession. I tried to adjust the color for a truer representation, or at least consistency. I need some better software tools for that, I think. Exposure in the backyard ranges from full shade, to dappled leafy shade, to full sun. And my little visitor ranged through all of it. Most of the shots were ruined due to camera shake, ie: photographer shake. Others were blurred by the motion of the bird itself; in the shade, the shutter speed was too slow to freeze its motion.
In the mixed native plant border, that's a cinnamon fern behind, and the stem of a Turk's Cap Lily in front. You can see the orange patch on the crown, a key for this species.
Here's the original, full-frame shot showing more of the border. The blurry thing on the right is a wooden planter I'd just finished planting with a female Winterberry, Ilex verticillata.
Rear view, also showing the orange patch on the crown.
The ovenbird visited me for less than five minutes. It started out in our back neighbor's cherry tree, where I couldn't get a good shot and lost sight of it. I thought it flew off.
I was surprised to then see the bird on the ground, beneath one of our Adirondack chairs, about six feet from me. It wandered around the backyard. You can see much of the in-progress gardening clutter around the bird: a bin holding compost, a bag of leaves, and so on. It didn't seem to be probing the ground. Maybe it was just checking out the neighborhood.
I take this as a good sign. My plan for the backyard is to recreate a woodland opening. I've been building up a collection of native shrubs, wildflowers and ferns. The past two weekends I've been reorganizing the space, clearing beds, and planting things which have been sitting in containers all this time. I'm starting to recreate the layered foliage structure of a clearing in an Eastern woodland. I feel like the ovenbird showed up as if to say: Getting warmer.
Congratulations. I admire 'birders' and wish I knew more about birds in general. You must be getting closer with your woodland, and to think it is in Brooklyn. You certainly have changed my perception of what it must be like there.
ReplyDeleteWhat fun to find your blog! I'm a NYC native who used to live in Park Slope, with concord grapes and lilies of the valley and philadelphius and all sorts of things it's too hot for down here. I'm glad that at least part of New York hasn't been paved over! I still miss my spring carpet of lilies of the valley...
ReplyDeleteCongratulations in attracting that ovenbird...strange name for a bird. Luckily you had your camera with you when the bird appeared. Usually when you want to photography birds there's nary a one to be seen. As soon as you don't have your camera, dozens appear. Recently when I've gone down into our swale to fill the birdfeeders, I've been greeted by a catbird who flies right up to the feeder only 4 feet away from me. There it scolds me, I guess to hurry up and put more seed into the feeders and never mind the gawking. This has happended two day running. The bird is fearless, even more so than the chickadees. I'll bring a camera along with me today. Betcha it won't appear.
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