Yesterday morning began with a Great Blue Heron and ended with a trip to the liquor store to buy a bottle of vermouth – thanks to birds and the power of suggestion. Ravenous robins and starlings filled up my time in-between.
I’ve taken hundreds of photos of this Great Blue Heron over the last few months but this one stood out because of the unusual wing position just prior to takeoff. The heron was in pretty deep water so the deployment of those huge wings was restricted by water below and by vegetation directly behind them. This momentary posture was the result.
This is the next photo in the burst as the heron began to raise its wings straight up. I was so close to the bird I cut off one or both wings in all of the rest of the takeoff and flight shots.
The rest of my morning with birds was taken up mostly by ravenous American Robins eating olives. There were dozens of robins and a few starlings in a clump of Russian Olive trees and they were all hungry after a long, cold night. So I had great fun for nearly 45 minutes trying to photograph them as they performed gymnastics while trying to pick off olives. The robins in particular were pretty picky about which olives they chose, which added to the fun for me.
With all those olives to choose from, this robin has just spotted the ones ‘he’ wanted, circled in red.
Taking off after them.
The next photo in the burst.
Here it may look like he’s about to land on the twig directly in front of his feet but in reality his destination is the larger, thicker twig to the right of that one. The olives he’s after are in the upper right corner. Because of the busy setting I lost focus on him in the landing shot and by the time I acquired focus on him again he had…
already picked off one of the olives.
Here’s another robin picking off an olive that was very hard to get. While this bird had been perched upright there were many olives right in front of his face but the bird wanted this one. I wish I knew what makes them prefer one similar olive over another.
This is the same robin after harvesting that “special” olive. Little did he know, he was about to lose it due to circumstances beyond his control.
About a second later a brouhaha broke out in the background that demanded his attention. Can you tell what’s going on back there and who’s involved?
The next shot in the burst shows the combatants, a robin and a starling, a little more clearly. At this point I’m pretty sure he still had the olive in his bill.
But a split second later he dropped the precious olive when he felt threatened by another robin, whose wingtip can be seen at the right side of the frame.
I spent a lot of time trying to photograph robins and starlings taking off and/or in flight but the setting was so busy with twigs and olives I didn’t have a lot of luck.
This is the best I did with the starlings.
The starlings were almost as gymnastically creative as the robins while trying to reach preferred olives but I could never get light in their eyes while they were doing it. That happened…
repeatedly. Notice that the starling’s head is turned 180° from its body
While waiting for one of the robins or starlings to come out in the relative open I had a lot of time to think about “stuff” and one thing that came to mind was the shrimp scampi I was planning on having for dinner last night.
One thing led to another in my wandering mind – from olives, to martinis (which I hate), to gin (which I also hate – might as well drink gasoline) to vermouth. I like my shrimp scampi made with dry white wine but I realized that the only white wine I had had been opened months ago and would no longer be good. I had recently learned that vermouth (a dry white wine) keeps for much longer than other wines when opened (especially when kept in the fridge) so the next thing I did after photographing birds eating olives was make a trip to the liquor store to purchase a bottle of vermouth.
Thanks to birds eating olives, the power of suggestion and my convoluted mind making a somewhat strained progression, I had scampi made with vermouth for dinner last night. It was excellent.
Ron
PS – Here’s another thing we can thank birds for – from NBC News this morning. Birds make us smarter, including older adults.
I love your photos of the heron, robins and starlings!! Your persistence and expertise are amazing. And I love the way your mind works and the way you describe your photos and your day. Dinner sounded delicious. What was I thinking being absent for so long? Winter blahs and blues. Shaking it all off with spring and plan on visiting your blog more often!
Beautiful photo story, this gave me a lift:)
You never disappoint. Your photos allow me to see the birds so much better than I can with my binoculars. Starlings remind me of damsel fish, because of their beautiful markings.
Great photo’s, Ron! I think some of the Robin images are first class! I actually love the busy background and think it w1orks well in many of the photos!! Thanks again for sharing your work
Thanks a lot, Joanne. Glad you like them.
Luv the 1st shot of the Heron! Rest of the series with the Robins and Starlings are also fun.
Yep, opened wine DOES age. Will have to keep the vermouth in mind.
More Canada Geese than I’ve ever seen on the river between the bridges and in the fields! WOW!
“Yep, opened wine DOES age.”
Judy, it oxidizes and begins to taste like vinegar. I don’t know why that happens much slower with vermouth but according to my research, it does. I’ll put it to the test with this bottle.
I’ve had a big flock of robins finishing off the crabapples, and there have been other big flocks all around town, too (Ellensburg,WA). They are so much fun to watch and listen to, but seeing them up close in your photos really adds another dimension to the experience!
The GBH looks like it is being sucked into the muck, like the movies where people are being swallowed by quicksand. Very glad he was just taking off! Such neat photographs.
And love the progression of your thoughts – like that old show “Connections” with James Burke. It’s all because you are an experienced birder and your brain matter is very dense. Hooray!
“your brain matter is very dense”
Carolyn, I’ve been told I was dense before. I doubt it was meant as a compliment. 🙂
Our robins love crabapples too, In fact I photographed robins eating them just the day before.
I love how the Robins’s excitement over the olives fed into your sudden urge for shrimp!
Sallie, I never know where my mind might go.
What a great day!!!
I’ve definitely had worse, MJ.
It’s interesting to watch how birds select the various fruits they choose. As to why they choose some over others, I can’t tell you for sure with Russian olives. However, for many fruits, the cuticle changes its appearance and begins to reflect UV light as it ripens. We can’t see this, being mammals, so the fruits look identical day-to-day, but birds see ultraviolet light and once they see that UV reflection, they know the fruit is ready to eat. I don’t know about Russian olives, but I do know that their cuticle changes to help protect the seed inside and become more attractive to birds. But I don’t know if that attraction is based on UV perception or not in this case.
Interesting, Dan. Thanks for your insight, as always.
What a great, unusual couple of photo-stories. Loved it all. Thanks for the morning lift, Ron.
Thanks very much, Nina.
I can definitely see the wheels turning in the GBH’s head as he figures out how to get the heck out of there. Like the robins and starlings, I’m also picky about my olives. Unlike you Ron, I love a good gin martini or a gin and tonic. 😈
The scampi sounds good — we use vermouth in several recipes, including scampi and piccata (as well as a tiny bit in said martinis).
Did you get any snow last week or was it confined to central and southern Utah?
Marty, the only gin I’ve ever been able to stomach (briefly) was Sloe gin. But an extremely unpleasant experience with Sloe gin when I was still in high school put a permanent end to that!
We got some pretty good snow totals in the mountains last week but nothing that stuck around in the valley for long. Too warm for that.
All excellent Ron. I have seen that Heron take off from water posture, but have not reacted fast enough to catch it. We recently had almost two weeks of a large group of Robins accompanied by about the same number of Cedar Waxwings gleaning what is left on our Flowering Pear trees up and down our street, and then just for us a complete cleaning off of all the berries on our large Pyracantha shrub out back. Took a couple hundred photos that I shared on our local NextDoor and with neighbors.
Thanks, Everett.
We’ve had far more winter robins this year than I remember ever seeing before, probably due to our crazy-warm temps. Usually most of our robins migrate but not this year.
Jealous of your waxwings.
Love the gbh shots, and the robins too. Glad you enjoyed your scampi. My husband uses vermouth with his scampi too, and they’re also delicious. Being logical has its places, but so do free association and play.
“Being logical has its places, but so do free association and play.”
Good point, Burrdoo. Damn good thing for me… 🙂
Love the progression from olives to scampi, and the birds too!
Brett, I’m not sure how logical that progression is but it works for me…