Monday, January 09, 2012

Where shall I fly today?


Skimming the waves
Pompano Beach, FL, December 2011
[Click photo to embiggen]
About this photo: We're still sharing favorites from 2011, and you're invited to do the same. Just click here. New theme, After Dark, launches tonight at 7:00 p.m.
Anyone who's hung around here for a bit knows I'm somewhat manic about bird pictures (see here, here and here for previous examples.) I don't really understand why this is so: They just pull my attention skyward whenever I'm around them.

I'm not a real hard-core birdwatcher, though. I wouldn't know a yellow-bellied sapsucker from a Monrovian miniature spotted quail. I've tried reading books on bird-spotting before, but it's always ended up in a fog of combined boredom and frustration. Here's all I know:
  • They fly.
  • I can't.
  • I find that neat.
For the sake of convenience, I usually end up shooting whatever's nearby, which typically ends up being the ubiquitous seagull. Scoff if you must, but damn, they can fly. Chasing them with a lens always teaches me something new about the craft. And it makes me feel good while I'm doing it. Which is kinda the point of this living thing, after all.

Your turn: Where's this bird going? Where would you go if you had the native ability to fly?

3 comments:

Tabor said...

I never thought I would grow up to be one of those old farts who watch and count birds. But I have joined the Cornell Feeder Watch program and I also spend many an hour taking pictures of birds and thinking about traveling to places where there are more birds! It is sort of an infection so be careful.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

I wouldn't know a yellow-bellied sapsucker from a Monrovian miniature spotted quail.

A yellow-bellied sapsucker.

As for the Monrovian miniature spotted quail...would you settle for a Spotted Quail-thrush?
~

21 Wits said...

Okay, did I miss a post before this...I'll check, but this is your mystery photo...I just know it has to be! Water and of course something that's alive and flys!