The 15 minute observing challenge continues, birding in my local area
Full screen gallery below
In the previous blog I wrote about observing, to recap here is the reason and intent. The last weeks I am starting to discover more birds in my area, especially directly in the area where I live. Meaning the first patch of green you will encounter when leaving the house. With the help of the Merlin Bird app, especially the sound recording feature - which is mind-blowing - I discovered more birds than I thought I would. Especially the Treecreeper and the Common redstart.
So getting out and using the Merlin app was an opportunity for me to find new birds, but also to slow down a bit more and really observe what I hear, see and in the end photograph. This was (as usual) a real eye opener, still it sounds like the obvious thing to do, but in general I (we all I guess) tend to see, composite and capture an image and move on way to quickly. So I challenged myself to at least be at a spot for 15 minutes and try to really observe birds in their habitat. Maybe this will lead to different or more interesting photos.
This time I took an afternoon and early evening to put this into practice. This resulted in some nice shots, but nothing spectacular, although I took my time with the Reed Bunting and the Reed Warblers and got some nice perspectives, especially them hiding in the reeds.
Still did not catch that Common Redstart. Let me know what you think and don’t hesitate to leave a comment or an e-mail. Click to view larger in a light box and navigate with mouse or arrow keys. Enjoy!
