Wildlife in Photography

Wednesday evening I made a run on the JMU Arboretum in Harrisonburg. Pulling up on the scene, I was met with an overcast and chilly site.

Initially, I spotted several squirrels and blue jays near the feeder and slowly made an approach.

As expected, the jays took off but I was left with an unusually cooperative squirrel.

As I’ve said before, I’ll sometimes have luck if I don’t move and make myself part of the environment. As I remained motionless and crouched toward the ground, several blue jays flew back toward the feeder, but stopped short and perched behind some foliage. So close…

Then one of those bizarre occurrences started to unfold. As I sat, the skies cleared but it began to rain. For a few minutes, I didn’t see any clouds overhead but a steady rain came down in the arboretum. After that passed, there was intermittent sunlight as several birds perched nearby.

Most of the birds had become familiar sights – the downy and red-bellied woodpeckers, tufted titmouse, robins, doves and several sparrows. But then I noticed one of the more rare (at least to me) varieties, the eastern towhee.

I’ve only seen a few of these birds in the past year.

After I watched it skip about for a while, I scanned the surrounding treeline and made a few more images. Overcast windy days are really a toss up photographically, but I walked away pretty pleased.