Saturday’s Shots

I think the hardest part of taking pictures Saturday was deciding which shots I liked the best. The unexpected, but much-appreciated sunshine made taking pictures a joy. It, and the lack of shooting since hunting season has ended, also seemed to bring out the birds in force, particularly the Red-Winged Blackbirds. The males were loudly declaring their claim to the much-prized wetland reeds.

Despite the fact that I have nearly as many Red-Winged Blackbird shots on my hard drive as I do GBH shots, I still find it difficult, if not impossible, to not take a shot of one when they’re flashing their wings and singing loudly, as these two

Red-Winged Blackbird

were.

Red-Winged Blackbird

Too often, they come out as black blobs. It’s seldom that you’re able to distinguish the brown lines on their feathers as you can here.

I actually went back and deleted some previous shots rather than my new shots, as I usually do.

8 thoughts on “Saturday’s Shots”

  1. Great shots. When we lived in upstate New York (near Rochester) the Red Winged Blackbirds showed up before the Robins did – to me they were the real sign of spring!

  2. I’d like to think it’s Spring here, after all it reached 55 degrees today, but I’m doubtful Spring is here quite yet.

  3. I always liked these birds. When I began birding more than 5 years ago, they used to pass this way in droves, flocks, inundations of color, but for some reason in the past few years, they barely ever come and not in large numbers, not in my part of Texas. I’m not sure what changed; maybe Mexico or some other location wiped them out? So, I miss seeing them.

  4. These are remarkably fine shots, Loren. The song of the red-winged blackbird is exactly like the sound made by the spring on our back screen door when I was a child. I love hearing and seeing them.

  5. This is one of my favorite birds. Their song sounds like water to me. I took them for granted when I lived across the road from the marsh in Louisiana. I have seen them in New Mexico, but only where’s there’s water, of course.

    These are soooooo beautiful. I am struck, I am enamoured, I am enchanted. You got everything but the song.

    ps..I didn’t know until last year that the females are brown; only the males have the distinctive red patch and black plumage.

  6. Wow. My best red-wing blackbird shots pale in comparison! I never even knew they have the brown edges around their feathers.

  7. Only young males have the brown edges around their feathers, Vasiliy, as it says here: “The immature male Red Winged Blackbird has similar coloring to the adult male bird but has pale colored eye brows and brown borders to its black plumage.”

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