Judging from my last three posts you might think I spent most of my time at Bill and Alice’s taking bird photos. Nothing is further from the truth, though. There were so many birds feeding in the backyard that it was ridiculously easy to take the shots that I got. The birds were indifferent to people unless you moved too close. That wasn’t a problem with my 600mm lens with a 1.4 extender. Heck, it took a lot longer to edit one of these photos than it did to take all of them.
Strangely enough, even birds I’m used to seeing seemed different in Bill and Alice’s backyard. We often have Mourning Doves in our backyard, but I can never get as close as I did at Bill and Alice’s house.
I was surprised that even the Mourning Doves feeding on the ground seemed indifferent to my presence.
I’m used to seeing Mockingbirds in Santa Rosa, but I was pleasantly surprised to see this one in Arizona, especially since we couldn’t fit Santa Rosa into this trip.
I’ve only gotten fleeting glances of Long-Tailed Grackles outside of Colorado, but this one seemed eager to get its picture taken, returning to the yard three or four days in a row.
Seeing Bill in so much pain from his neck injury was tough, but the birds were a nice distraction when he needed extra rest.
Sometimes immersing ourselves in nature, even for a short time, seems to help us cope with problems.