What every birder aspires to produce......an Audubon picture

A spotted towhee is a type of sparrow with a thick pointed bill, short neck, chunky body and a long rounded tail. Spotted towhees hop over the ground beneath dense tangles of shrubs, scratching in leaf litter for food. While walking through the woods you'll hear the leaves rustle on occasion, and never be able to spot the cause, which is a little eerie to be honest. Towhees search for insects such as beetles, crickets, moths and bees or berries, seeds, and the like amongst the leaves on the forest floor. They fly into scrub while delivering their quick, buzzy song and generally build their nests on the forest floor in fairly exposed areas, deep inside thickets. Nests are composed of dry leaves, stems and bark strips, and are lined with grasses, pine needles and hair. The nests are about 4.5 inches across with an inner cup of 2.4-4 inches deep. Their clutch size is 2-6 eggs which, for a small bird, is pretty incredible.

I rate the picture below at 5 out of 5 stars; a birders dream, and definitely one of the best pictures of a bird I've ever taken. Everything 'pops' in the picture. One advantage of birding in the Alameda open space area is that the sun rises in the east over the Sandia Mountains. So, as I usually venture out in the early morning, I'm walking back towards the parking lot (in a southwesterly direction), and the sun is at my back. Taking pictures while facing this direction in the morning usually results in near-perfect exposures. 

Towhees have a gorgeous song that is easily identifiable. I still haven't figured out how to place the calls on this blog. The best I can do right now is to provide this link:

:https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Spotted_Towhee/sounds





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Capturing birds in flight, a Cooper's hawk, and the process of working to get a 'tack' sharp photo

Image
  Capturing birds in flight like the Cooper's hawk above has been quite an adventure into photography for me. I'm not sure that the average person knows exactly how hard it is to capture a sharp image, but I can tell you it's more difficult than one would think. Initially starting out just shooting birds that were still, I always had the desire to capture birds in flight, the question is: how do you do it? Capturing flying birds has required me to watch quite a few youtube videos and read from a few birding books that I have, hoping that there would be an answer to this question. Having the right camera with the ability to shoot at unbelievably high shutter speeds is a start. My Sony Alpha 6400 seemingly has no end to how fast it can take pictures. However, shutter speed by itself is not the only factor. Something called the 'exposure triangle' is the key. I won't go too much further into this as it can take hours to explain, but these three components involve 1...
Read more

A Northern Goshawk

Image
Goshawks usually reside in the northern United States. When prey is scarce, though, they may be found well to the south of their normal range. A couple of days ago while walking through the open space, I passed by a tree where some birds were making a huge ruckus. I stopped, turned around, and tried to figure out what was causing the birds to be upset. I didn't see the goshawk right away; it was camouflaged almost perfectly against a thick tree branch. The goshawk didn't move, fly away, or alert me in anyway that it was there, but the birds sure knew. Finally I saw it, an eyas (juvenile hawk), which might explain why it didn't fly away, just not experienced yet. The goshawk was not huge by any standard and had beautiful feathers that it was seemingly shedding. Goshawks hunt their prey by putting on short bursts of amazingly fast flight, twisting among branches and crashing through thickets in the intensity of pursuit. They generally mate for life with females laying 2-4 egg...
Read more

A blue Grosbeak

Image
 I rarely see one of these beautiful birds. They are usually found in fields as was the case with this one. Males are blue with two brown wing bars. A mated pair of Grosbeaks usually raise two broods of nestings per year.They build their nests low in small trees, shrubs and tangles in vines. The oldest grosbeak on record was a male who was at least 7 years and two months old when he was captured and re released during banding operation in Virginia.  
Read more