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ALLAN BOVEE - PHOTOGRAPHY ADVENTURES IN NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY SUMMER 2008
It was on these trips were I really
developed a love of nature. Not just the beauty of the lakes and rivers but the
flowers and birds as well. I didn't know the birds too good and but would try to
identify as many as I could. With one I found, a blackpoll warbler scolding me from
the shore as I was trout fishing in a stream, I made an attempt to write down
all the field marks until I could get back to camp where I had a bird book. I
have not seen another blackpoll warbler since but the memory is still strong in
my mind.
One bird that I never saw but kept hearing really got my attention. It called in a beautiful whistle that was haunting in its solitude and singularity. Most of the time we were out in the lakes in boats, but I still could hear this bird from the shore. I figured it must be a beautiful warbler and couldn't find a description of its song under any entry in the warblers of my Petersen's field guide. To hear this bird song try going to this link: CLICK HERE (www.enature.com/birding/audio.asp). Then select under the groups: perching birds, select: sparrows (near the bottom) and go to page 4 of the sparrows to find the white-throated sparrow and you can see and hear the bird. Back home a year or so later, I remembered laying in bed with the TV on, half asleep watching a National Geographic special. They were showing different birds and suddenly I heard the same bird song from the north. I didn't catch the bird but did hear the announcer call it a sparrow. I couldn't believe a drab little bird could make such a beautiful song. When I subsequently found the bird to be a white-throated sparrow, I found it wasn't drab, but really a very beautiful bird. It has some drabness to help it conceal in the grasses near the ground where it forages but it has striking white patches above it's eyes and a white throat. There are yellow spots in the lores by it's eyes. It is really a handsome bird. The last time I went to northern Ontario fishing, I spent some time behind the camp looking for a white-throated sparrow's nest. The male would fly to the top of a small sapling and sing and I could get quite close to it. I didn't find the nest.
This year I went up earlier and began looking for a white-throated sparrow in the area I found the one last year. I got lucky and found a nest with four eggs about ten feet from the nest I found last year. The very next day the eggs hatched and I was very happy as I now had a nest and knew the age of the young. I waited for about four days to set up my blind to photograph the sparrows, but the birds were still too young and all the female did was brood, just a couple of feedings to record. I waited for three more days and this time the photography opportunities were much better. I hadn't even seen the male the first time, now he was coming with food every ten minutes. The young were growing rapidly and required nearly continuous visits by the parent birds. With such a great nest to photograph, I even shot some digital shots for the first time. All my bird nest work up till now has been film, but with the instant viewing and histograms of digital, I decided to go for it. The digital camera sensor is smaller than a 35mm film sensor, and I immediately noticed I was way too close with digital. So, I moved the blind back a little. Also the flash set up for film was way too much for digital so I cut power to my flashes first 1/2, then to 1/4 until I achieved the bell shaped histogram we are after in this format. All the photos here are digital taken with the Nikon D70 camera and my trusty old 300 f/2.8 lens. In the photo of the nest set, I am using three tripods that vary in height from left to right. The left one holds the umbrella which keeps the sun off the baby birds. The nest is exposed to the elements during the photography and the sun can cause the young harm (after the photos, the nest is covered with the dried bracken ferns as it was when I found it). The middle tripod holds the main flash and the small tripod holds the fill flash. I am in the large black box with the camera lens sticking out with a blue towel covering my movements inside (I lost my black towel and so had to use one from my camper).
The birds really adjusted to me well, and only scolded when I would lay down in the bog and put my head by the nest to make sure my flashes were aimed correctly. And even when I wasn't photographing the birds they didn't become alarmed at me when I was in the area photographing other subjects I found, like arethusa orchids and black and white warblers. Just before I came home I checked the nest a last time to find the birds had successfully fledged and they were gone. But only twenty feet away the male gave his chik! call and following him with my binoculars, I could see him feed one of the fledglings. When I next see a white-throated sparrow in my backyard, I will probably wonder if it is one of my up north birds. Anyway I will look at them with even more admiration after my adventure with them this summer.
Return to PHOTOGRAPHY JOURNAL main page. Date this page was edited: June 25, 2008. |
Many
years ago, I used to make an annual trip to wilderness lakes in northern
Ontario. A group of us would drive as far north as the roads went above Lake
Superior, and then board a float plane and fly the last hundred miles to a
remote lake with an outpost camp. Here we were left off for a week of fishing
and other than the mid-week check by airplane, we were left alone. We brought
everything we needed but still depended on our catching fish for food. These
were some of the most memorable times of my life. Every morning we would awaken
to loon's calling and head out for a day of fishing. 
It
turns out the bird is very common in northern Michigan as well. Every year I see
lots of them in my backyard at the feeders in the spring and fall on their way
up and back during migration. They don't nest in my area but are common enough
during these non-nesting times. Although I have looked for the nests up north
for years, I have not had any luck. Since they nest on the ground, their nests
are not easily found, but I have seen birds with food and fledged birds just
leaving the nest but never an active nest. Last year I did find my first
white-throated sparrow nest but the young birds left the nest just as I was
setting up. I was too late. 