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Yellowthroat
One of the birds I look forward to photographing in the spring is the common yellowthroat. While I saw them a lot this year and photographed them a fair amount as well, I didn't come away with what I hoped for and thought my chances were over for the year. But on Memorial Day I finally got a look I wanted when this male yellowthroat popped up onto a snag at Long Lake.
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Bright As Yellow
I got up at 5am on this morning expecting to photograph yellow-headed blackbirds but ended up with yellow not from blackbirds but yellowthroats and goldfinches.
I watched the yellowthroats off-and-on over the course of about 10 hours, they were mostly staying out of sight and when they did pop up to sing, the little yellow birds were chased away by other yellowthroats or red-winged blackbirds. The yellowthroats were active around the refuge but it was only towards the end of my stay that I finally got some nice pictures, such as this male in a patch of cattails. |
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Gold Reward
The yellowthroats weren’t staying still for very long, so even if I got a clear view of one I had to move quickly. This male flew into the middle of the cattails, not up so high as to draw the ire of the blackbirds, but only stayed for a few seconds. His eye was obscured by the cattail in front nearly the entire time, but he stuck his head out far enough for me to get one picture before he flew off.
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Friend or Foe?
This male yellowthroat had flown down near the ground and was mostly obscured by my old nemesis at Ridgefield, the grasses that grow so tall during the spring that they block many of the views around the auto tour. I already had some nice pictures of the yellowthroat more in the open, so I tried to turn my old foe to my advantage. I used the shallowest depth of field to blur out the surrounding plants and highlight the brilliant yellow and black and white of the yellowthroat peeking out from his surroundings.
Yellowthroats aren’t exactly designed for camoflage. |
