Are you a bird watching lover? Bring these little avian marvels into your home with my new songbird print collection. These prints feature colorful photographic portraits of some of your favorite feathered friends.
Pre-framed prints
Available as ready-to-hang canvas wraps, metal prints or framed prints. Order them now through my Pixels.com page.
Three small 8X8 or 10X10 inch square-format prints look great lined up vertically on a small wall, or horizontally above a desk or wall table. When ordering a set of canvas wrap prints, I suggest the “black sides” option (as shown below) to harmonize the prints.
Canvas wraps (with “black sides” option)
These photographic prints are available in several sizes up to 30X30 inches. Every purchase comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Select from 17 different songbird images in spring, summer and autumn settings. Bird selection includes chickadee, towhee, junco, steller’s jay and the miniature bushtit.
Metal prints
More images will be added to the songbird print collection over the coming months. So, subscribe to not miss out.
All birds in these photographs are wild, and were treated in compliance with National Audubon Society’s guidelines (PDF).
Backyard songbird photography can be a very satisfying way to enjoy outdoor photography while getting close to your neighborhood feathery friends.
In this article, I collect and share my approach to backyard songbird photography. But first, please join me for a photo shoot from my backyard photo blind by watching the following video:
Songbirds specialize in perching. They have three toes pointing forward and one toe directed back. This so called “anisodactyl” toe configuration, along with a tendon arrangement in their legs that causes the toes to curl and maintain grip “by default” (i.e. without engaging muscles), make these passerines expert perchers.
This article will focus on photographing perching songbirds using a bird feeder to attract them, and a photo blind to get in close to these miniature flying marvels.
Chestnut-backed chickadee
Ethical Backyard Songbird Photography
Songbirds can generally benefit from the photography experience when done in an ethical way.
First, we need to follow some basic rules about attracting birds to your backyard with feeders. I encourage you to read the National Audubon Society’s Guide to Bird Feeding (PDF).
Here are a few measures I take in consideration of these guidelines:
I feed the birds in autumn, winter and early spring, leaving the birds to fully revert back to natural foods when it is plentiful in summer. I try not to let the feeder go empty for more than a couple days in a row during these times.
When I’m not actively photographing the birds, I hang my feeder from a stand that is at least 15 feet from surrounding bushes and 30 feet from house windows. This makes it harder for cats and other predators to ambush the birds at the feeder or on the ground below the feeder. And it reduces collisions between birds and windows. This second feeder stand is equipped with a squirrel guard to keep them off the feeder.
If my seeds get soaked by rain, I will throw them out and then wash and sterilize the feeder. This avoids the growth of mold, which can be deadly to birds.
Dark-eyed junco
Key Factors for Successful Backyard Songbird Photography
Here are the factors I consider key for successful songbird photography in the backyard, which we will cover more detail in this article.
Attracting birds with feeders
Arranging the feeder, perch and photo blind for best light, for best bird pose and for best background
Getting close in to the songbird action
Using the right equipment and equipment settings
Timing the shoot
Chestnut-backed chickadee perched on red flowering currant
Attracting Songbirds to Your Backyard
Many songbirds, and other types of birds, are easy to attract with feeders. I suggest that you go to your local home and garden store and ask about the best types of bird feed and bird feeders for your region. They also may offer advice on how to deal with squirrels or other animals in your locale that may cause a problem at your feeder.
The Boulder River Trail offers easy hiking into the Boulder River Wilderness, with scenic views of waterfalls cascading down cliffs and right into the Boulder River.
Join me for a photo shoot of the Boulder River waterfalls in the pouring rain. First, we shoot Feature Show Falls, wading out into the flooding river to anchor the scene with big mossy boulders in the foreground. Next, we shoot an un-named falls pouring over a cliff another 1/4 mile up the trail.
This is wet and wild Boulder River Wilderness at its autumn best.
Thanks for reading and thank you for your support!
Feature Show Falls, Boulder River Wilderness, Washington
Feature Show Falls pours into Boulder River, Boulder River Wilderness, Washington
Un-named creek pouring into Boulder River, Boulder River Wilderness, Washington
Fog shrouded forest, Boulder River Wilderness, Washington
On an autumn hike up into the subalpine meadows of Mount Rainier National Park, I found these adorable American Pika (Ochotona princeps) busy topping off their hay piles before winter sets in.
American pika (Ochotona princeps), autumn color in background, Mount Rainier National Park, Washington
American pika (Ochotona princeps), Mount Rainier National Park, Washington
American pika (Ochotona princeps) sitting on boulder, Mount Rainier National Park, Washington
American Pika inhabit mountain side boulder and talus fields, where they live and store hay among the rocks. Pika don’t hibernate. Instead, they survive the frigid winters by remaining active in their rock piles under the snow.
In fact, it is summer’s heat that threatens the pika more than winter’s cold. Like rabbits, to whom they are related, pika have limited thermoregulation capabilities. They overheat and die when exposed to temperatures as low as 78 °F (25.5 °C) for more than several hours. While global warming pushes them to higher and higher elevations, they can become trapped on their mountainside “rock islands”. This limits their ability to migrate to cooler climes.
Pika now serve as an indicator species for climate change. In fact, Pika have already disappeared from more than one-third of their habitat in Oregon and Nevada.
Tips for Finding Pika in the Wild
Hang out at subalpine boulder fields or talus slopes.
Avoid hot days, when they will likely be deep in their rock piles trying to avoid the heat.
Listen for their short squeaking calls.
Watch for quick darting motions as they sprint among the boulder.
Look for little round furry balls sitting on top of larger boulders, as you can see in my photos above. Pika like these perches for keeping an eye on things.
Look for piles of hay stacked under larger rocks, especially in the fall. Pika stockpile hay to get them through the winter.
Join me on a 5-day family backpacking trip on the South Coast Trail in Olympic National Park to photograph seascapes along this wild stretch of Washington Coast. We start at Third Beach and make camps at Scotts Bluff and Strawberry Point. Along the way, we found towering sea stacks, coastal sitka spruce forests, tide-pools, seals, sea otter, great blue heron and bald eagles. A pack of coyote howl 100 feet from our tent. Weather ranges from light rain to coastal fog to clear skies full of stars.
Sea stack on Washington Coast in coastal fog, near Toleak Point
Moonlit sea stack on Washington Coast under starry sky, near Toleak Point
Great blue heron (Ardea herodias) wading along shoreline below sea stacks, near Strawberry Point
Tents camping on beach below sea stack on Washington Coast, Scotts Bluff
Classic coastal sitka spruce forest, Scotts Bluff
Sea stack called “Giants Graveyard” on Washington Coast at sunset
Join me on a quick backpacking trip up to Spray Park in the northwest corner of Mount Rainier National Park to photograph Mount Rainier reflected in tranquil ponds. The wildflower meadows were in peak bloom, and so were the mosquitoes!
The mosquitoes are atrocious, but calm weather and warm evening light made for perfect reflections of Mount Rainer in subalpine ponds at 6100 feet elevation. White heather, pink mountain laurel, and Mount Rainier lousewort (which is endemic to Mount Rainier) were in full bloom.
Mount Rainier reflected in small pond in Spray Park meadows, Mount Rainier National Park
If you like the images, consider purchasing a print for yourself or a loved one.
Join me for an overnight sea kayaking paddle to little Skagit Island. We photograph the beautiful Pacific madrone trees (Arbutus menziesii) that grow along its rocky shoreline.
We load the sea kayak with overnight camping gear, make the quick paddle across Skagit Bay, set up camp and explore the 0.9 mile trail above the shoreline of Skagit Island. In addition to photographing the madrone trees, we see racoon, great blue heron, downy woodpecker, wildflowers, little patches of prairie and stars orbiting through the nighttime sky.
Skagit Island Marine State Park has two campsites ashore, one only for guests arriving by wind- or human-powered watercraft. It also has two mooring buoys just offshore. It is one of 66 camps and 160 day-use sites available along the Cascadia Marine Trail system, running the full length of Puget Sound.
Pacific madrone (Arbutus menziesii) overlooking Skagit Bay, Skagit Island Marine State Park
Grassy meadow on rocky coast overlooking Skagit Bay, Skagit Island Marine State Park
Going on a multi-week wilderness photography expedition in the wild with no place to recharge your batteries? In this blog series, we investigate solar charging your wilderness photography expedition. In Part 1, we tested a solar charging system in the backyard, intended for keeping a wilderness photography kit charged on a long wilderness adventure.
Before diving into this Part 2, I recommend you first read Part 1, where I introduced the photography equipment I was planning to take on a 3 week photography packrafting expedition to the arctic wilds of northwestern Alaska, estimate average daily energy consumption, test a 2 pound solar charging system in various weather conditions and find the break-even point where solar charging has weight advantage over just carrying lots of extra batteries. And if you will be solar charging your wilderness photography expedition, download my free Wilderness Expedition Solar Charging Calculator (Microsoft Excel). Try it out and let me know what you think.
In this, Part 2, I will make a brief report on initial field trials made with this system on a 5-day packrafting trip on Oregon’s John Day River, and a 4-day float on the Grande Ronde River. While these field trials were really too short to fully test my solar charging system, I will share some basic observations on the system’s practicalities in the field.
Unfortunately, we have had to cancel the trip to Alaska this year due to COVID-19. So it may be another year or two before I have opportunity to make a “Part 3” post from an actual multi-week field test.
Summary of Solar Charging Field Trials
This article is based on field trials made on a 5-day packrafting trip on Oregon’s John Day River in late-May of 2020, and a 4-day packrafting trip on the Grande Ronde River in late-June of 2020. While both of these trips were made within 1 month of summer equinox, when daylight is long, both rivers are in deep canyons, which limits availability of sunlight during evening hours.
Join us on a 4-day packrafting adventure down the Wallowa and Grande Ronde Rivers in NE Oregon and SE Washington.
The Grande Ronde is a National Wild and Scenic River, administered by the BLM, Oregon Parks and Recreation and the US Forest Service.
Four of us paddled Alpacka packrafts. We put-in on the Wallowa River in Minam, with the river flowing at 4,400 cubic feet per second (cfs), and took-out 4 days and 65.5 miles later on the Grande Ronde River at Boggan’s Oasis.
Day 1 included paddling Minam Roller (Class 2) and ended with camp in a forest at river’s edge. Day 2 involved running Red Rock Rapid (Class 2), practice with the throw rope and nice camping on an island fragrant with flowering mock orange. Day 3 started off with a photo shoot of spotted sandpipers wading in the shallows, a lot more Class 2 paddling, a bit of rescue practice and a hike up a grassy hill. Day 4 was a more relaxing paddle day. Finally, after taking out at Boggan’s Oasis (and snagging a raspberry milkshake), we escaping the heat down on the river and bush camped in a ponderosa pine grove at 4800 feet overlooking the Joseph Canyon.
The American Whitewater page for Grande Ronde Minam-Troy and Troy-Boggan’s Oasis have useful information. We floated both sections. While Minam to Troy was fairly busy with other raft groups, we had the float from Troy to Boggan’s Oasis to ourselves.
American Whitewater recommends flows in the range 1000-13,000 cfs. Our trip ranged 4400 to 4500 cfs.
The BLM publishes a detailed Boater’s Guide with detailed river maps. You can purchase this at Minam Store, or BLM offices. Or, download it to your phone here.
Some of the surrounding areas are agricultural and range land. You should pack all of your drinking water. I consumed about 3 liters/day.
You are required to carry out all human waste. I used Cleanwaste GO Anywhere bags stored in a dry bag. Bring additional TP and hand sanitizer to supplement the tiny amount that comes in these bag. Those with larger boats should consider carrying something similar to the Cleanwaste Go Anywhere Portable Toilet.
Campfires need to be contained in fire pans. Be prepared to cook on stoves.
Bring binoculars to scout for wildlife up on the hills. You could see mountain sheep, deer, snake, eagles, sand pipers and lots of other birds.
