Patience

One of the cool things about sitting in a photoblind waiting for birds is how your ears become quite tuned into the sounds around you. Typically when I am photographing I only have a small roughly six inch portal to look out of. Your ears tune into the environment around you. This morning I could hear the small town of Willits waking up below me. Traffic noise gradually picked up from trucks on the highway and cars on the surface street until it became a background hum. I heard a Pileated Woodpecker hammering away somewhere in the woods behind me. Off to the side I could hear the plaintive calls of a group of Red Breasted Nuthatches as they got closer and closer and then they were in front of me sneaking drinks and darting away. I watched and waited. There were feeding calls of the Dark Eyed Juncos as they fed on the ground around the feeder kicking up leaves with their little feet. There was the call and hammering of a Northern Flicker off to the side but I couldn't see it. I waited and waited. Eventually a brave little Junco hopped up and got a drink. A couple more followed and then they nervously took off. About twenty minutes later they returned and a bolder one in the group took the plunge and took a bath. After that it was a free for all of bath times and birds. I carefully photographed a few of them. Suddenly off to the side there was a flash of color as a Townsend's Warbler came in for a drink and a bath. I rarely get warblers so this was a real treat. I am so glad I stuck it out and waited. Shortly after that the lighting got to bright and I called it a morning. Thank you Lord for the special morning. May all of you have a wonderful day, chris Image created using a Canon 7D and a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L Is usm Lens. AV mode, ISO 800, F 8.0 at 1/30th of a sec.