This weekend I was treated to a beautiful bird, the Cedar Waxwing. This is the first time I have photographed these birds in my local area, but certainly not the first time they have been here. The truth is that until I became more interested in wildlife photography, there were a lot of critters in my area which I just never noticed.
Saturday, Karen and I returned to LLELA once again for some hiking and photo practice. I can’t allow myself to get out of the habit of lugging that 600 around or when the time comes, I could end up face-down in the mud on a paid vacation (ouch). Instead, I’ll take every opportunity to go out and hike and practice.
On this day, the wildlife (birds) were pretty scarce. We saw a few robins and cardinals that were simply too quick, and I saw some form of a woodpecker, but it was too far away for me to capture adequately so I’ll save it for another day. But after finishing one trail and about to begin a second, I noticed a bunch of “flitty” birds doing what they do, flitting, around a couple of trees near the pavilion. As I focused my lens on them, I realized they were cedar waxwings! As they flitted around here, I managed to capture a few decent frames of them. They were really going after those berries on the trees.
Not bad, but photographically, very cluttered, and a bit too far away from the subject. All those twiggy branches distract from the beauty that is the cedar waxwing.
After spending some time there clicking away, trying to get a better shot, we headed down the next trail. This trail was shaded and therefore has a little less harsh light, and we were greeted with more waxwings. What luck. A second chance with better light. After chasing a couple of them around the branches for a while, I finally got some shots that I was happy with. This shot was my favorite of the day.
The darker background, along with some fill flash, helps bring out the bird more clearly in this photo. And while I liked how it is looking at me over its shoulder, I really wanted a more front-facing shot. That however, was not to be. They kept their back to me, no matter which direction I came at them from.
Could this shot have been better? Sure. I could have done without the twigs coming out of the bird’s head and the berries could have been more in focus, but the beauty of the bird makes up for some of that. Some days, you take what you can get. For all the faults of this shot, it is still one of my favorites.