New Summer Species

A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.–Henry David Thoreau

Cordilleran Flycatcher, Beaver Meadows, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.
Cordilleran Flycatcher, Beaver Meadows, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. This Empidonax flycatcher can be recognized by its teardrop-shaped extended eye-ring. The two secondary catchlights in the eye are not from a flash, but rather (presumably) internal reflections of the sun within the eyeball. Canon EOS 7D/500mm f/4L IS (+1.4x TC). Natural light.

This week’s Houston Audubon Nature Photography Association (HANPA) meeting was a summer vacation show-and-tell. The association is in recess during the summer swelter, so members brought images collected during their summer vacations to share with the group. The theme we chose to explore was images of species we had perhaps seen (or perhaps not), but never photographed well before this summer.

Warbling Vireo, Beaver Meadows, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.
Warbling Vireo, Beaver Meadows, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. A group of these birds was singing and calling from a stand of aspen trees on the edge of Beaver Meadows. We also saw and photographed them gathering nesting materials. Canon EOS 7D/600mm f/4L IS (+1.4x TC). Natural light.

We’re not the kind of birders who keep life lists, but we know when we see or photograph a species for the first time. Pyrrhuloxias, Yellow-breasted Chats, and Stellar’s Jays are common birds that we have seen many times in the West, but achieved reasonable images of for the the first time this summer.

Notable species completely new to us from this summer’s trips to Big Bend NP and Rocky Mountain NP included the Cordilleran Flycatcher, Varied Bunting, Warbling Vireo, White-tailed Ptarmigan, Hairy Woodpecker, and Williamson’s Sapsucker.

Although we think we got some pretty nice images, it’s always a little troubling to photograph birds on vacation simply because we never feel as though we have had enough time to really do the birds justice. Thoughts tend to run like: If I just had another day, I could have gotten the Hairy Woodpecker shot of my dreams! But alas, vacation is fleeting, and it’s soon time to get back to the grind.

Stellar's Jay, Beaver Meadows, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.
Stellar’s Jay, Beaver Meadows, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. These are common, suspicious birds. Usually when they see us they take off and fly away immediately (Is it something I said?). Canon EOS 7D/600mm f/4L IS (+1.4x TC). High-speed synchronized fill-flash.

©2015 Elisa D. Lewis and Christopher R. Cunningham. All rights reserved. No text or images may be duplicated or distributed without permission.