• Location: back inside
• Mood: excited
• Music: none at present

Saturday's birding tour

It's all about timing...but the first part of the walk was more about butterflies and flowers (lots of butterflies, lots of flowers)  and some muddy crossings and how hot and muggy it was today.   I had chosen to go out with only the zoom lens, not the big birding lens, and no monopod, in hopes of guaranteeing the visitors something special.  (The best butterflies/birds/etc. try to show up when you don't have your ideal equipment along.)  So then we were slounging in our chairs at Owl Pavilion, enjoying a bit of a breeze and wondering if anything else interesting would show up...and FD saw it first.  A male painted bunting, in bright sunlight, on a rock.

A painted bunting is all the following: brilliant red, brilliant indigo/cobalt, brilliant lime green, purplish, and dark green.  All on a bird the size of a house sparrow, and the brightest colors right next to each other without any gradation at all. 

Naturally it flew away before any of us could get a camera on it.  But it hung around, teasing us with glimpses of brilliant color, and occasionally flying from the fencerow trees to the brushpile, like something out of a Disney cartoon.  But...I spread corn and sunflower seeds at the base of the brushpile, and near Owl Pavilion.  And eventually, the bird came into view.  Shutters clicked, mine among them.  Of course, I had the zoom cranked out to the full 300mm, and was trying to hand-hold it steady, on a small bird in thick grass.                                                         .