The Savannah Sparrow may be one of my favorite sparrows, and it’s difficult to explain exactly why.  It might have something to do with their similarity to other, more common sparrows.  I can be out looking at birds and see this perfectly normal song sparrow or something like a song sparrow when I suddenly catch a flash of bright yellow eyebrow or a buzzy insectoid note mixed in with their sing song call and know I’ve got something considerably less common.  

They are strikingly beautiful birds, but this year they’ve taken on a new meaning for me.

A few weeks back, I wrote a piece, Alive about living on when others have passed.

I didn’t write about one aspect of death then, because I wasn’t ready to form it into words yet.

Recently, a casual friend of mine passed away.  I’m not going to go into a lot of details here– it’s someone I worked with on projects on occasion and a lot of people from work knew her far longer and better than I did, but I have felt this profound sense of inability since her death.  Usually, when someone I know very well dies, I find ways to process it, to honor them in ways that are meaningful and powerful.  In this case, I didn’t feel like I knew her well enough to know how to do that.

The situation presented itself.  I didn’t know this at the time but she really loved my photography, and I mean, raved about it to other people.  She never told me this, which is kind of like her.  Not knowing this, I had tried to get her one of my photos when she was ill (I made one photo into Christmas cards and wanted to make sure she got one), not knowing at the time how ill she was.  She died shortly after, and I don’t know if she ever did get the card.

Someone I don’t know very well approached me at work this week.  She wanted to know if I had a photo I could provide for them.  They’re presenting a gift to her husband, from all of us, and they thought one of my photos would be ideal.

I hadn’t even thought of it at the time, I’d taken the photo above during break.  Earlier in the week, I’d sent them a few photos as ideas.  On Friday I thought about it and said, how about this one?  The sparrow was in one of the trees a group of us planted last fall.  As part of the ceremony where we present the photo, we’re planting a tree on her behalf.  It just seems so right: a bird found on our facilities, in a tree we’d planted, and truly just one of the most spectacularly beautiful photos I’ve ever taken.  

I feel like, for the first time since she died, I have something I can do for her that’s meaningful, personal and appropriate.  

So this week’s Dawn Chorus is dedicated to Susan, whom I didn’t know as well as I’d have liked.  If we’d had more time, I’m sure we would have become really great friends, and I’m sorry you had to leave this world so soon.  

So onto the birds.  I’ve got some really nice photos of Black-Capped Chickadees before but there is something about the colors in this one that I find really compelling

                               

One of the nice things about the new camera is how many frames per second I can get: 5.5 frames/second is a LOT more opportunity for action shots than 3 f/s, and it lets me get photos like this on occasion:

                               

See above; usually when a bird is hopping from one branch to another I just get the bird on one branch and then the other.  Now sometimes I can get the in-between:

                               

On, and speaking of strikingly beautiful birds:

                               

I’ve been trying to get a photo of a Louisiana Waterthrush for years now.  I finally found one within walking distance of my house.  Heard, then spotted, then photographed.  Yay life birds!

                               

Anyone able to help me ID these mystery Sparrows?

                               


                               

These Wood Ducks were VERY far away.  I’m amazed I got any photo of them at all:

Common Merganser

                               

Long-tailed duck

                               

Northern Flicker

                               

Northern Harrier

                               


                               

Northern Pintail

                               

Pilleated Woodpecker

                               

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

                               

red-tailed hawk

                               

As usual, these are all smaller versions; the full sized photos with details (where and when taken, which camera I used, etc.) are available by clicking on them.  

Oh, and I’ve added something new to the site: one of those “people who liked this photo also liked…” lists below the photo.  I’m curious how that works for everyone.  

Hope you enjoyed the story and the photos.  I feel like I’m finally getting to the point of pushing my photographic talent to a new level with some of the shots I’ve been getting lately.