Camera Malfunction!
Cook County, IL
Wednesday 13 May 2020
57 °F
So today my original plan was to bird LaBagh Woods at the break of dawn since some wonderful warbler numbers have been seen there recently.
Upon arrival, though, I faced a big problem: every time my I zoomed my camera in, it would automatically zoom back out! How incredibly frustrating! This had happened before but today I could just not get the camera to work for the life of me — I tried taking out batteries and replacing them with spares, I tried tweaking settings, everything...so I texted my parents and luckily they had a solution: my birthday present had arrived early (they were hiding it from me) and my dream camera the Nikon P1000 was waiting for me at home. While excited to use my new camera, it was also a bitter goodbye to LaBagh Woods since I knew there were good birds around — later, another Cerulean Warbler was seen, among others. Argh.
Well, since I had a theory final mid-morning, I had to choose somewhere close-to-home to test out my new camera and get my morning birding fix. I headed to Thatcher Woods and saw a few migrants, but it was not nearly the volume or diversity I would expect/want from a mid-May morning. For example, here is a HERMIT THRUSH that in most years, would be long-gone by now:
Luckily, I managed to get about a dozen warbler species though most were very distant and backlit. Here is an OVENBIRD:
Male MAGNOLIA WARBLER:
Male CHESTNUT-SIDED:
And a LEAST FLYCATCHER gave great looks & photos which proved my love for this new camera!
TRIGGER ALERT for arachnophobes: after this flycatcher photo, DO NOT go on!!
I flipped over a few logs in hopes of a stray Tiger Salamander and unfortunately came up empty, but I did find this large Wolf Spider:
HOUSE WREN:
WHITE-THROATED SPARROW:
Bird-of-the-day to the Least Flycatcher with runner-up to the Chestnut-sided Warbler. Not much to choose from today, but it was certainly nice to test out my new camera!! Thanks parents for contributing to the cost of this beast of a camera.
Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1115 Species
Congrats! This camera is first-rate, very clear. A definite upgrade, and well-deserved! You'll have fun with this. If it's any consolation, you'll still be seeing migrants- the winds here in SW Wisconsin just shifted south yesterday!
by liz cifani