The last half of the week for the bird photography workshop was mostly in the woods – grey skies most of the time which makes it easier since you don’t have to worry about light direction.
The Dippers forage along the water (so low enough to photograph) but they are the same colour as the rocks they are often sitting on so hard to notice if they aren’t moving.
The owls may be around but may also be sleeping and are very hard to spot if they are high in the trees. Glenn did a Barred Owl playback a couple of times while looking for other birds and eventually heard a response. Of course he’s around 40 and still has his hearing. In any case while we were shooting some woodpeckers he went out and located the owl. Even when he pointed out the owl most of us took a long time to see it.
For the other birds (woodpeckers, hummingbirds etc.) it was a matter of finding a good location and trying various playbacks. Most are territorial so will come looking for the intruder. The reaction seemed to vary from don’t care, to mildly interested (but will continue foraging while looking) to highly agressive. Glenn was able to get many to land on particular branches of particular trees – low enough and close enough to get a good photo.
Emphasis was on minimizing impact by only spending a small amount of time with one bird.
WR Foster 