Rummaging through my photos I found this one of a Northern Flicker. I took this last winter on a Sunday morning. I’m running low on bird photos so tomorrow I’m heading to Dexter to hike some trails and get some new bird close-ups. My goal is to capture as many Nuthatches, Woodpeckers, Titmouses or Chickadees as possible. This weekend I’m starting on some sketches for a new woodcut relating to birds and trees. Birds and trees are not new to me. The playground of my youth was the woods around Beaver Creek just outside of Adrian. So, birds and trees have always been a part of my life. But, this year my friends will tell you that birds have really been on my mind a lot lately. It started with a purchase of the “Peterson’s Birding by Ear” CD from the Sugarland Nature Center in the Great Smoky Mountains. I’ve had an Audubon Bird Guide for at least 10 years and it’s received plenty of use. We keep it in the kitchen next to the binoculars so we can spy on birds eating from the feeders. After I studied the cd’s for a month or so I took a beginners birding class at Hidden Lake Gardens. I found that birding by ear is a good way to spot new birds. The instructor identified the unseen birds first by ear. If it was one that we hadn’t seen we scanned the trees. Sometimes we spotted it and sometimes we didn’t. About the same time I took the class a weird thing happened. I dropped my Nikon binoculars on the kitchen floor and broke them. A few days later my dad gave me a pair of Leopold binoculars that he won in a raffle. I hadn’t even told him about my broken Nikon. So, now I have a new set of binoculars that are smaller than my old pair with excellent optics. With all this new birding knowledge I broke down and purchased a new book, “Sibley’s Eastern Bird Guide”. It just came in the mail today and the first thing I do after I write this is crack it open….that and a cold brew…ha!
The Heron 