On a cloudy Sunday afternoon between church services, I was able to enjoy birding next to my backyard fire pit. Along with a cup of coffee, it was a nice afternoon of journaling and photography. After several hours of the usual birds, I was delighted by the soft appearance of a dainty Hermit Thrush scraping in the leaf litter not far from my chair.

As soon as that thrush appeared, there was something in my heart that lifted; a subtle spark of joy or excitement. Where does this spark come from? If we are just the products of random chance and evolution, and the other organisms on this planet are just rivals in this game called “survival of the fittest”, shouldn’t I just have stomped on him as an inferior competitor in the food chain? There must be something more to it.

Saturday, 1:15 PM - When leaving for door-to-door outreach, I had "that feeling" that I should bring my camera just in case... but I didn't. And sure enough, as I sat at the entrance of a townhome complex on Epps Bridge Road for 30 minutes waiting for friends from church to finish talking with a woman, I spotted a life bird.

A Baltimore Oriole sat right in front of my eyes four about a minute. I had no doubt of the identification seeing that bright orange and black beauty. It certainly wasn't a Towhee. Being a bird I hadn't photographed before, I'm ticked that all I had was my crappy camera phone. I shouldn't have ignored "that feeling". 

Just after sunset on a Tuesday night, a Walton County Animal Control officer was called out to pick up an owl on Walker Drive in Monroe, Georgia. A little red or rufous morph Eastern Screech Owl had crossed paths with a vehicle and became stuck in the car’s grill after a head-on collision.

Owls have superb vision and pinpoint hearing in order to pick off prey in low-light situations. Unfortunately, they can become so focused on their quarry, which in this case was on the side of a roadway, that they don’t even notice the vehicle racing at them from the side.

The officer brought the Owl back to the shelter and placed him in a quiet cage. Thankfully, he was still alive in the morning when I arrived. He was still able to see, which is a good sign. Many owls I have picked up that were involved in car strikes have gone blind from head trauma. He was also able to fly a short distance but soon became exhausted.
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Sensing he wasn’t able to be released, I made arrangements with a licensed wildlife rehabilitor and got his photographs before transporting him into their care. 

Walton County, Georgia, USA

Wednesday, 9:09 AM - And overcast morning with a slight breeze makes it a bit chilly for exposed fingers and my nose. Finally able to get a short break for a bird walk. The grass has been mowed around the upper pond. There’s a lot of bird activity. A great time to go shooting! 

Bird photography tips abound. There is everything from concise web pages to multi-volume books on the subject. The tips range from knowing your species to knowing your equipment; tips on shutter speed, aperture and ISO; tips from backlighting to flash; tips on manual settings to program modes; and tips on anticipating a birds actions.

But the best tip I’ve ever read and have put into practice is: GET OUT AND SHOOT EVERY DAY! I made 2018 my “birding year.” I got outside nearly every day and shot hundreds upon hundreds of birds. Many of those shots weren’t that great, but every once in a while, you snag a gem.  
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Every once in a while that little bird allows you to approach close enough that extreme cropping isn’t needed. Every once in a while you’re on top of your game and get that flying bird in focus. Every once in a while you come upon that rare migrating warbler. But even if you are deleting hundreds of photos, you are gaining a great amount of practice and experience. 

Thursday, 8:15 AM - During my lunch break, I had a brief moment to wander up to the main retention pond behind my office in Walton County, Georgia. A trio of Hooded Mergansers were diving in the northeast corner of the pond.  

The Hooded Merganser, Lophodytes cucullatus, is a small duck species found in North America. Since they typically winter on ice-free ponds, lakes and rivers, they love the mild winters of Georgia and usually show up here in the fall and winter. Beginning in November, I can expect a few to take up residence on the nearby retention pond.  

The “Hoodies” are always quite skittish and rapidly swim away or take to the air as soon as they notice my approach. So this morning I stealthily snuck around the pond, hiding myself below the high bank. I took up a nook in some bushes and waited until they came to me. 

Just then, a public works truck passed the far end of the pond, pushing the nervous mergansers my direction! I was able to grab a few photographs as they swam by. But sure enough, they were quick to hear my shutter clicks and spot me. The female was the first to notice. With breeding season not too far away, I suppose the two males were too busy thinking of something else! 

There’s a popular theme park known as "the happiest place on earth". Why? Because every visitor to a Disney park can’t help but be happy! There is something for everyone: food, fireworks, parades, plays, princesses, lights, roller coasters, costumes, movies, resorts, pools, shopping and more. You’d have to deliberately concentrate your problems to not have fun here!

But what about for photographers? Is there something for them? Obviously! What a great place to shoot dazzling displays; to practice dramatic night-time photography; to capture the colors, action and detail; to photo families and fun.
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Okay, but what about wildlife photographers? Right on again! I actually muscled my 600mm lens around a theme park all day. And for what? Animal Kingdom! Rhinos, lions, wildebeest, ostrich, flamingos, elephants… a Serengeti safari right there in Florida. It is such a happy place for all that even the Rhinoceros was smiling! 

Seriously? Photos of a theme park safari ride? Hey, why not. The animals themselves are still magnificent. And until the day I can travel to Africa on a real safari... yes, I'll photograph theme park animals! 

Just for fun I set up my trail camera before leaving for Disney for 6 days. The camera was along the back of my property facing into a meadow. 

​Axel was impounded by police and animal control on January 2, 2019. He was closed inside an vehicle parked at a fast food restaurant for more than 24-hours when the police took him out of the car. He got his animal rescue photos on January 4 and was picked up by Save A Pet Rescue on January 7, 2019!

Migration is a great thing! I’m not just speaking biologically, but photographically as well! 

​Migration is a great thing for birds and wildlife. When food sources run low because of winter or because of drought, migration allows species to move to another land of plenty until things turn around.

But migration is also great for photographers! Each season brings a whole new host of photo subjects right into your area. I can walk out my back office back door and photograph a Great Blue Heron almost any time of the year. But wait until January and a pile of Redhead Ducks magically appears!
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And oh the wonders of spring and fall migration! Warblers, warblers, warblers everywhere; alive in bright colors of yellow, black and white! Migration is wonderful software programmed within each species by our Creator! 

Tuesday, 8:50 AM - I’m not one that puts a lot of emphasis on New Year’s Day. However, even though it is really just another new day, I do recognize that many people use it as a date to look at the past and set goals for the future. What about my goals for 2019?

Getting into eBird listing in 2018, my goal was to photograph birds like mad… and I did! But how about 2019? I’m still going to shoot like crazy, but do I keep all those lower quality photos, or just the really good ones that qualify for portfolio and stock images?

My nature photography goal isn’t the photograph, but the subject. I’m not as interested in producing high quality photographs as I am in just photo journaling all the awesome creatures that I encounter. So perhaps I will keep those hundreds of bird shots?

But then again, my hard drive and blogs are filling with hundreds upon hundreds of images. To edit and blog them all can really take some time. It turns a hobby into work and creates a feeling of stress when I fall behind. So how about just keeping the stock quality images or the rare animal finds in 2019?

In the end, who cares! I’ll do what I want to do on that day. Why set some “rule” that I’m bound to for the rest of the year just because it is January 1st? I’m just going to keep getting outside, shooting what I want to shoot, posting what I want to post and enjoying God’s creation that He has so generously given us a time to enjoy!
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Life is short. Get outdoors! 

​New Year's Eve. Fog, mist and showers. Not a good day for photography, but a good day for birding. I wanted one last good birding day for 2018. I tried to photograph as many birds as I could. Thirty-four bird species total and 1 River Otter.

Monday, 12:26 PM - Taking a walk through the trees surrounding the more secluded upper pond behind my office in Walton County, I again stumbled upon one of the North American River Otters that frequent our muddy brown Georgia pond.  I had previously photographed this individual on another pond about a quarter mile away. How do I know it was the same otter? His left eye is damaged or has a cataract.

Because of his vision impairment, he didn’t see me right away, but most definitely could smell me as I was standing only twenty feet away. He raised his body up out of the water, sniffing the air and snorting. As soon as he was convinced I was near, he shot under the bank and disappeared.

I investigated a bit further and found a couple of entrances in the bank and just up on the shore. Most certainly this was a den site! And not too far from one open were several big piles of… you know.
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The river otter is a fish predator. Obviously these cold blooded bream were the main staple of this guy’s diet. Piles and piles of fish scales lay around the den entrance. Yes, that is river otter poop… or “scat” if you wish to be more scientific! 

Wednesday, December 26, 2018 - the numbers of Redheads and Ring-necks have been fluctuating a bit on the main retention pond. I counted 42 Redead and 4 Ring-necked today. 

Thursday, December 27, 2018 - a male/female pair of Hooded Mergansers was swimming on the uppper retention pond. 

Saturday, December 29, 2018 - I went late afternoon to hike with my camera at Sandy Creek Nature Center in Athens, Georgia. It was unbelievable how flooded the entire area was. I have never seen it so covered in flowing, brown water. Most of the trails were underwater, except the higher Pine Ridge Trail. 

On Friday evening driving from O’hare airport in Chicago to my dad’s house in the suburbs, I spotted many gulls and pigeons over the busy interstates. Turning into my father’s subdivision in Crystal Lake, I spotted a couple of Mourning Doves on a rooftop and a flyoever of about 30 geese. Over the next few days I would see hundreds upon hundreds of Canada Geese. All through the day, but highest numbers before sunset, the calls of the geese sounded all through the air. At times it sounded like an invasion!

When I awoke Saturday morning, I could hear the sounds of Robins. Looking outside, there were hundreds of them! In the trees, chasing each other, on the ground, everywhere! A comical group of mixed age individuals congregated around the outlet of the neighbor’s sump pump pipe, leaping in alarm each time the waters gushed forth, then returning to lap up the water. Juncos, sparrows and finches mobbed the feeders in the neighbor’s backyard. And a few cameos were made by woodpeckers and a White-breasted Nuthatch (but I was hoping for a Red-breasted lifer!).
 
But the next three mornings: nothing. I sat for over an hour watching the feeders on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and not a single visitor. Of the hundreds of Robins just hours earlier, now there were none. It is baffling to me how there could be so many birds one day, and zero the next.

​After the Robin counting, I snuck away first to the Peter Exner Wildlife Preserve near my brother’s house. It wasn’t overloaded with birds or other critters, but over the course of a 2 mile walk I did manage to photograph two life birds I had been looking for: Black-capped Chickadee and Red-breasted Nuthatch. The Chickadees were easy, flitting just about everywhere. On a path through some trees I first heard a nuthatch and was able to draw him in with playback. 

​Leaving Exner, I drove over to the lakes created in the old rock quarry. The Three Oaks Recreation area has turned out to be a beautiful spot for summertime fun and decent place for birding. There are paths, docks, gazebos and a good bit of unfrozen water. I was able to get a few more lifer’s here today and when I went back on Monday.

​The first was the American Tree Sparrow. The second was a bit harder to discern. Far across the water floated some black and white ducks. The distance and the glare of the bright sun made things hard to see. But zooming in the photo and using process of elimination, I narrowed it down to a group of Common Mergansers. This was backed by recent listings from other birders in the area as well.  

As wildlife photographers, we strive to get those natural shots of wildlife in their wild surroundings. But it is a sad commentary on our lack of care for this planet when a landfill is the “natural habitat” for our wildlife. What a contrast!
The Beauty? A gorgeous feathered avian in bright breeding plumage.
The Beast? This perfect creature living amongst the huge mountains of trash in our landfills.
 
Don’t believe me? Look at the bird walk schedule for your local Audubon Society. I guarantee that at least one walk per year is at the county landfill! Pollution, trash, smog, window strikes... we've created a harsher environment for wildlife than their regular "wilder" habitats!

When the Creator placed man upon this planet, God gave man the responsibility to “dress and to keep it.” As with any language, Hebrew words can have a wide range of meanings. In addition to the words dress and keep, as used by the King James Bible translators, the words are also translated in other areas as to guard, to watch, to observe, to serve, to preserve and to protect.  Therefore, God has not only put man in the garden to observe it, but could we say that man was placed in the garden and has a responsibility as stewards to preserve it?
 
Yes, it may be true that some of the biggest bird lists, prize wildlife photos and rare bird sightings come from local landfills. I am at least glad that wildlife is adapting to our mess. But what about those species that don’t adapt?
 
We may try get a better camera angle, or crop in close to cut out that unsightly urban habitat. But why not leave it in the photo? Perhaps that shot of Beauty and the Beast will be a wakeup call to do what you can to clean up and cut back! Can we look into their eyes and do nothing? ​