February is well underway and although the weather here is not as
brutal as it was in many years in the past, it is still a struggle for
both humans and wildlife to survive. Sometimes the winter doldrums are
broken by frequent sightings of species such as golden eagles and bald
eagles, but this is not the case this year.
 |
| Eagle At Conowingo, MD: Canon 7D- 500mmF4, ISO 100- 1/500 sec. f5 |
When other species are hard to find, one can always
turn to birds that are commonly seen at the feeders. I maintain a back
country feeding station, which is set up so the birds may be
photographed in their natural environment.
 |
| Male Downy Woodpecker: Canon 40D- 500mmF4, ISO 400- 1/6000 sec. f5 |
The downy woodpecker shown above paused for a moment
on a section of hollow sassafras stump, which has several large
woodpecker holes in it. The feed is placed on a partition installed in
the hollow core of the trunk which keeps a suitable supply of feed just
below the holes. The photo below shows the feeder and its' natural
surroundings.
At one time I would have mowed the "weeds" that
surrounded this, but I learned that leaving certain species resulted in
improved backgrounds. Note the broken stalk of Pokeweed in the upper
right tangent of the photograph. That provided a natural perch for the
female cardinal shown below.
 |
| Female Cardinal: Canon 40D- 500mm F4, ISO 100- 1/2500 sec. f5 |
The weathered trunk to the right of the sassafras
feeder provided a wonderful perch on which to capture a portrait of a
White-throated Sparrow.
 |
| White-throated Sparrow: Canon 40D- 500mmF4, ISO 400- 1/2500 sec. f7.1 |
The sassafras tree did not grow in this spot, but the
broken off section of locust tree did. The sassafras log was found
lying on the ground in another area, transported to this spot and cut to
an acceptable length. It was then anchored to nearby objects with thin
metal straps and lag bolts, which were painted brown and camouflaged as
good as possible. Since the lowest hole was several feet from the
ground and the log was completely hollow, I sealed it off about a foot
below the lower hole by spraying foam insulation inside the trunk to
provide a platform for the seed.
With a bit of creative
thinking, one can beat the winter doldrums without having to travel
long distances in search of suitable subjects--at least until conditions
are right to make a trip in search of more esoteric subjects.
Originally published at
Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.
