Birds of sunny-day arboretum
April 13, 2009
By comparison, Friday’s trip to the JMU arboretum yielded many more results than the trip to Hillandale Park.
Some days when it’s nice out, I worry that the high presence of people in the arboretum would limit the opportunities to photograph animals. That might be true to a degree, but I didn’t have any problems finding high concentrations of birds.
A number of woodpeckers, including downy and red-bellied woodpeckers like the one below, were out and about.
I made some nice images of downy woodpeckers that will likely be put in the book.
I also found a few species that I wasn’t so sure about, including the yellow bird below.
Photographically, I don’t like when harsh shadows run across the subject, so that line across its face is a turn-off for me.
In the ongoing attempt to photograph a bluejay, I wasn’t able to get a quality picture, but one jay in particular decided to mock me by perching directly over my head. I just kept hoping that would be all it did while up there.
On the pond was a single goose milling about that was very conditioned to people. As I watched, a child began to feed it out of his hand. Sure, there was an occasional hiss here and there when the kid made a sudden movement, but it was still an interesting sight getting close to a usually skiddish bird.
Nearing the end of my adventure, I walked the woods and found another little friend. Remember Stumpy the squirrel?
Wildlife in Photography 
April 13, 2009 at 7:58 am
The “yellow bird” looks like an American Goldfinch with his winter feathers.
April 13, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Cool.
April 13, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Thanks Heather! Good to know.
April 13, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Blue Jays are hard to get a good photo of. I have several that come to my feeder. They take several sun flower seeds in their bill and fly to a tree to eat them. They move so rapidly it is hard to get a good clear shot or there is a branch obstructing the view and in a few weeks the leaves will block the view.