Peanuts In My Pocket

I attended a birthday party at a cold park in Irvine yesterday. The air had that damp chill that settles into your hands if you stand still too long. Even so, I enjoyed the party immensely. It’s always good catching up with family. I also managed to squeeze in a little birding, although the results were disappointing. My eBird checklist showed only ten birds, and most of my photos were pretty rough. Still, it was a good day. I ate chicken and waffles at a picnic table with some of the people I love most in the world, and that alone was enough to justify showing up, camera or not.

I was disappointed with my photography. I brought my birding kit, but the day was dull and dark, with heavy clouds and no direct sunlight. My lens isn’t fast enough for those conditions. Most of the birds, except for the ever-present crows, stayed tucked high in the canopy, moving just enough to make sure every shot blurred. I took 144 photos and exactly three were worth keeping. It’s the kind of day every birder deals with eventually. I’ve learned to accept it without beating myself up too much.

I took a few photos with my iPhone too. Those were disappointing as well, except for the family shots. I do like this photo of a tree trunk and its roots, though not enough to publish it anywhere other than here.

I was hoping for cedar waxwings. I heard their call and even managed a recording, but I never saw one. At this point I’m convinced someone is installing tiny speakers high up in the branches just to drive me insane. I know I’ll find one eventually, but I could use a break. I’m honestly on the edge of visiting a zoo just to confirm they actually exist.

Dark-eyed juncos were the most common species in the park. I counted eleven in one group, a personal record. I’ve never seen more than two or three at a time before. A small surprise, but a welcome one.

My bird of the day was a Townsend’s warbler, although my photo of it is truly awful. I’m always surprised when I run into one. They’re gorgeous birds, but subtle. Most people don’t realize they’re around because they never sit still, never come out of the foliage, and look like random leaves moving if you’re not paying attention. This one was only thirty feet from a group of people, completely unnoticed. I’m glad I got even a lousy photo, because later, when I went through my shots, it led me to something unexpected.

Because the light was terrible and my lens is slow, I had to use a much lower shutter speed than I prefer. Normally I push it as high as possible to keep images sharp. With a lower shutter speed and a heavy long lens, chaos wins more often than I do. Seventy of the 144 shots were blurry and unusable. I culled them without thinking twice. But one photo stopped me cold.

I caught a bird’s wings the moment it lifted off a branch, frozen in a soft, ghostlike blur that reminded me of the angel wing murals people pose in front of. It was unplanned, undeserved, and probably impossible to recreate. But it was beautiful. On a day full of misses, it was enough to make the whole outing worthwhile.

Some days, that’s all you get. And honestly, it’s enough.