Birding? Me? Really? Red-shafted northern flickers in flight, finally!

If you had asked me a few years ago about becoming a birder, I would have told you that this hobby was not on my radar and there probably wasn't a chance. Life takes turns though, that you cannot foresee, and you must keep an open mind to exploring new opportunities. Coming from me, this probably seems very strange. 

Yellowstone National Park in 2018, is probably where it all really started. We (my wife Cindy and I) had what we consider to be what we believe is the best vacation experience anyone can have in a national park, primarily due to Cindy's research and planning of the trip. (She couldn't arrange for the animals to appear on cue of course, but they did anyway.)  At that time, I had a Lumix point-and-shoot camera with a telephoto lens (24mm). I took over a thousand photos of the landscapes and animals in the park. The two moments that stood out relative to photography, were when we were in Haden Valley and when we drove by a ravine en route to Tower Falls. 

We made a habit of getting up super early, usually before 6am, getting dressed, making coffee, and jumping in the RAV4. Haden Valley was relatively close to the Fishing Bridge Campgrounds (where we were camping in our teardrop travel trailer) so we didn't have far to travel to our first stop.  We pulled over at one of the first turn-outs, got our binoculars, and scanned the valley floor. Cindy was first to spot a bald eagle and soon after another bald eagle revealed itself. I got the camera out and found the eagles but the birds were very, very far away. In the picture they showed up as little dots, very disappointing for such a cool moment. The second moment occurred when we rounded a bend in the road on route to Tower Fall and there was a wall of people lined up around the bend on the right-hand side of the road. We found a parking space and headed over to see what the excitement was: a mama black bear and her three small cubs! It was truly amazing to see the family of bears so close; to have the experience of watching AND photographing them. The mama bear was smart, though, as she kept the cubs far enough away from photographers and far enough away from predators, king of a 'middle' ground.  The photographers were clicking away, and the mama seemed to know she was in a 'safe' zone. On the video I was taking of the cubs playing on a tree you can hear me ask the woman next to me just how big is the lens you have? She replied "a 60 mm lens" and then she asked me and I replied rather sorrowful "a 24mm." Once again, the photos were dots or blurred with few good photos, but you could not take away the wonderful memories from that day. However, the video of them was priceless.  We could watch it over and over and still laugh at their antics.

Fast forward to about a year later.  Cindy was in Hobby Lobby to have a picture framed. Another woman was trying to get a beautiful picture of an elk framed. Cindy remarked about the high quality of the picture, and the two ladies started chatting. As it turns out, the other lady's husband had taken the picture of the elk and was a professional photographer. Cindy shared that I had a budding interest in photography, then the other lady shared her husband's website information with Cindy. I visited his site and reached out to him to see if he would mind giving me, as a beginner, some advice re: photography tips and recommendations for equipment. Her husband and I met, he recommended a camera and a lens, and off I went. He has been an invaluable resource for me. I'm still not really sure how I really started becoming a bird photographer, though.  







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