Great Backyard Bird Count 2022: Day 4 – Bird Silhouettes
Monday, February 21, 2022 was the last day of the Great Backyard Bird Count. Since it rained in the afternoon, we only went out from 11:24 am – 12:30 pm. It was a very overcast day. The thing I learned was that I can’t get very good photos on an overcast day. Without the light, the camera doesn’t pick up the colors. But, it did force me to learn to identify birds by their silhouette.
I went over into a very brushy area on my sister’s property, knelt down in the reeds and pointed my camera to some tall trees where Merlin kept picking up blue jay calls. I put my camera on motion mode and took lots of photos of flying birds. Since most of the birds in trees were really high, I didn’t get too many clear photos.
Here are the birds I either saw or picked up with Merlin.
Eurasian Collared Dove – 2
Killdeer – 14
Red-bellied Woodpecker – 3
Northern Flicker – 1
Blue Jay – 5
American Crow – 3
Carolina Wren – 2
Brown Thrasher – 2 (Sound only – they were really loud so I tried to find them but couldn’t)
Eastern Bluebird – 1
Cedar Waxwing – 1 (Sound only)
Field Sparrow – 2
Eastern Towhee – 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler – 1
Northern Cardinal – 6
Bird Silhouette Photos
Most of my photos were silhouette photos. It was kind of fun to identify birds simply by their shape in the sky. Merlin was able to help me with almost all of them. My husband was able to help me with the Northern Flicker since he is very familiar with that bird.
It’s been fun being a part of the Great Backyard Bird Count! I’ve learned a lot about birds. I’ve also learned a lot about pacing myself when it comes to creating checklists from photos. Dave doesn’t take photos. He knows enough about birds to identify most of them on sight. Logging his bird count checklists is much simpler than my process. For me it’s all about the photography. I love when I download my photos from my camera and discover something incredible!
For more of my bird photos, click here.
