Intimate Views

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At work, I try to remember to take a camera with me whenever I walk from building to building on the campus. I sometimes forget and, inevitably, that is almost guaranteed to be just when some particularly interesting bird or animal turns up.

Yesterday morning, when I had to walk 30-40 yards to another building, I almost didn't bother taking my camera. But I did. And I'm very glad I did!

The first thing that happened was a group of five Cedar Waxwings flew into a small tree as I was passing it. For 2-3 minutes they hopped around so near me that I could literally have reached out and touched them. In fact, I had to step back a couple of paces to get my camera to focus on them.






A few yards further along the path, I had an even more intimate encounter with birds. A female Brown-headed Cowbird landed in a tree, to be followed a few seconds later by a male.


Then, as I was taking photos of them, the male leaped onto the female's back, giving me a couple of shots of the birds mating.






Of course, getting photos of birds on the campus isn't always that easy. During my afternoon coffee break, for example, I came across a Yellow-breasted Chat in some undergrowth. For the next several minutes the bird scuffled around making an incredible noise, all within 5-6 feet of where I was standing with my camera at the ready. I never even got a glimpse of the bird, never mind a photo.
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