Saturday, May 30, 2009

A Warbler Charm Bracelet

Saturday, May 30, 2009
11 comments
Male Canada warbler.

When I was a kid, my grandma Thompson had a charm bracelet that she'd wear most days. I loved flipping the charms through my fingers, asking her about each one—where it came from, who gave it to her, what it symbolized. She'd patiently tell me the story of every charm.

While flipping through some of my bird photographs from this spring, I got to the sets of images I took at Magee Marsh in mid-May and I was surprised at the number of species—particularly warbler species—of which I got decent images. Decent=web-usable, nice to look at, but not publication-quality.

If you'd asked me while I was there, I'd have said I got a few, but mostly I wasn't quick enough, the light was bad, I lacked the right equipment (an external flash unit is what the pros use there), blah-blah-blah. It WAS frustrating shooting there, and after a while I just decided to look at birds and enjoy them. That lasted a few minutes, until yet another beautiful wood warbler hopped into the sunlight on a branch, six feet away, then it was click-click-click.

So, here is my charm bracelet of warblers from two days in May at Magee Marsh. I'd love to share these with Grandma Thompson, but she's no longer alive. Who knows, maybe she's seeing them anyway?


Male Wilson's warbler.

Male black-throated green warbler.

Male magnolia warbler.


Female Cape May warbler.


Male black-throated blue warbler.


Male bay-breasted warbler.

Male prothonotary warbler.


Male chestnut-sided warbler.

11 comments:

On May 30, 2009 at 12:34 PM birdchick said...

Dude! Love the new banner/headshot. Totally digging your design!

On May 30, 2009 at 12:54 PM Dan Huber said...

Nice new design of your blog. Really nice pics of the warblers.

On May 30, 2009 at 12:56 PM Anne said...

Interesting images in that scope!

On May 30, 2009 at 1:48 PM robin andrea said...

Great new look, bill. Really bright and colorful. Very well done.

On May 30, 2009 at 2:03 PM Patrick B. said...

Looking good Bill!

On May 30, 2009 at 3:22 PM birdchick said...

I twitpicked the bikini girl

On May 30, 2009 at 3:52 PM Susan Gets Native said...

Bill: LOVE the new site! So colorful!

On May 30, 2009 at 9:33 PM Julie Zickefoose said...

I consider it a lucky sign when I get the Slestack.

On May 31, 2009 at 8:51 AM Colleen said...

That image in your scope does not look like Julie! Aren't you supposed to be looking at birds. haha. I'm a big fan of both of your blogs!

On May 31, 2009 at 9:24 PM Julie Zickefoose said...

It does too look like me. If you're talking about the Slestack.

On June 1, 2009 at 1:31 PM Rondeau Ric said...

don't go two!

I'm going to read the blog no matter what.
With dial up i don't want to load two pages.

Cool copyright dude.


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