Damn tough shooting conditions but I found a bunch of birds in an unexpected place.
Late yesterday afternoon when our drizzly rain was finally beginning to turn to light snow I was desperate to get a bird, any bird, in my viewfinder so I visited several of our local ponds looking for photo ops. Within minutes it was obvious I was wasting my time so I headed for home. At the last minute, on a whim, I decided to detour to a nearby spot on the Jordan River I’d been to before. I’d never had any luck there in the past, not a single time, but like I often say, “You never know unless you go”.
I told you I was desperate…
1/400, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in
I was blown away to find birds everywhere and they were close, so close I had to remove my teleconverter. They were obviously stoking their internal furnaces with food before nightfall and before the snow got so thick it would make food hard to find. Mostly they were juvenile and adult White-crowned Sparrows with a few Dark-eyed Juncos thrown into the mix. At times I estimated that there was almost a hundred birds on the ground and in the bushes right in front of me. It was truly a feeding frenzy.
But after a while I spotted a single and very timid Spotted Towhee. ‘He’ spent most of his time buried in the bushes but occasionally he’d come out and join the other sparrows in their search for food. In the low light of the storm I had very little shutter speed for such a herky-jerky bird so out of the many hundreds of photos I took of him I’ll only keep a handful.
This is one of my earlier shots of him, taken when it was just barely snowing and there was little snow on the ground.
1/400, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in
A few minutes later the snow was beginning to build up, even on top of his tail.
Nearly the entire time he was out in the open he was performing his patented and frenzied ‘bilateral scratching’ technique as he looked for food so at these shutter speeds most of my photos of him were soft. In this shot I was mostly lucky to get the front part of the bird sharp.
Jordan River at beginning of snowstorm – cell phone shot
Here’s a much wider view of the snowy, poorly lit scene with a jogging path at the bottom of the frame and the Jordan River in the middle background. All the sparrows, including the towhee, were foraging for food in the open area between the bushes and the path. Sharp eyes may be able to spot a few of the sparrows just above the paved path.
Those same sharp eyes can probably see what may be a Bullock’s Oriole nest hanging down from the tree on the left.
Ron
Notes:
- It was amazing how fast the Jordan River came up yesterday. It sputtered rain on and off for much of the day but it was only a very light drizzle. I’d swear the river doubled its volume in just a few hours.
- For folks like our own April Olson who lives near one of our wooded canyons Spotted Towhees may be nothing to get excited about. But I don’t see them all that often and I only rarely get a chance to photograph them.
- You may be wondering why we see conifer twigs and needles in the first two photos but there are no conifers to be seen in the third photo. I suspect it’s because the city has spread mulch made from discarded Christmas trees near the jogging path.
- At my place we only got a couple of inches of snow out of this storm. But I’ll bet the mountains were dumped on and we have another storm coming in tomorrow. It’s about damn time!
The last photo of a Eastern Towhee I took was a couple of weeks ago at a feeding station in Quebec. This individual should not be here with all the snow covering the ground. I had to wait for one hour or so to see it appeared for only a few seconds. The both towhees share the same furtive behavior. The Eastern Towhee is not very common in Quebec. In fact, I have better photos of the Spotted than I have of the Eastern. What I like the most when I travel is to discover how much the reality lived by others can be different from mine. Nina Strange speaks about the Eastern to be a vagrant at her place and it’s the Spotted who is one here in Quebec. I love that. Have a great day!
They are such pretty birds! (alternative email address)
Hey Ron, thanks for the perfect Spotted Towhees on Valentine’s Day! The little beauties are in my top 10 favorites list.
Glad you enjoyed them, Susan. Thanks.
That towhee is a looker for sure! Glad you took a chance and were aptly rewarded! So nice to see some snow on the ground too — must be even nicer for you to be seeing it! 🙂
Glad you’re able to get your 2nd shot. Just a reminder to everyone, that even when vaccinated, it is possible to spread COVID-19 to others, so keep wearing those masks! 🥂
Happy Valleytines to all! 💗
Marty, we’ll probably be wearing masks for a long time to come.
I use to spend a lot of time riding along the Jordan River Trail, it is a great place to bird. I got too many flat tires on my bike, the goat heads are very thick. It’s where I took the hardest crash in all my years biking. My seat bolt sheered and I was going fast in a straight out area where there are not many people, under the Spaghetti Bowl by the golf course around 2700 S to 1300 S. I had to be rescued by family, my bike, and me, were to damaged to ride back to my car by the Peace Gardens.
Yes I do have spotted towhees, but I still get excited to see them. they are a beautiful bird with their contrasting colors. I only had a pair during this last week’s warm spell but with this snow I have 5 eating where I toss seed and live meal worms under a juniper for them. It is hard to get photos in my yard, the like to stay in the dark underbrush. I like the snow on the tail of the towhee in your photo. I am glad one popped out in the open for you.
April, I used to ride the Jordan River Trail on my bike every day, weather permitting. I did it after my retirement but before my bad back got the best of me. I took the same route every day – exactly 7.1 miles.
I never crashed and burned but I had one close call – a garden hose stretched at an oblique angle across the road caused me to very nearly go down at a pretty good clip. Scared the poop out of me.
Did you use a road bike with skinny tires? I switched to my mountain bike in my 40’s after a few falls with my road bike on paint stripes, cracks in the road, small sticks and sand on asphalt. Mountain bikes can take bigger debris items without losing traction or balance.
Nope. I’m not a skinny tire kinda guy.
Bilateral Scratch Boogie
It was damn tough shooting,
Snow was a’comin,
Figured what the hell,
I’ll check the river Jordan.
What a find!
Birds aplenty to see,
Most especially a shy,
But very handsome Towhee.
The spotted kind, decorated with snow,
Can’t but marvel,
At those eyes aglow.
His moves were herky-jerky,
That bilateral scratch,
But I got some super pictures,
Boy, what a catch.
🙂
👏👏👏
A big cheer from here,for the birds who crowded that ‘unlikely’ area and for your moisture. I so hope that more is on its way.
And thank you for the shy Spotted Towhee. Big thanks.
Fingers crossed for tomorrow’s storm, EC. Thanks.
Good day with the wonderful Spotted Towhees and a bit of snow – hope you get more snow. Know they did Seattle, the tri-cities area and further south! Love the Towhees that are a summer bird here. About the only place we really see rather than hear them is under the bird feeders…..😉 What is the source of the Jordan River?
-23 this morning before wind chill. In theory things should start moderating this week. Sure hope so – our rescheduled vaccinations are Thurs.!
Judy, the Jordan River flows from Utah Lake to the south to the Great Salt Lake to the north. It was named after the River Jordan of biblical fame that runs from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea in the middle east.
Good luck keeping your vaccination appointment. I’m scheduled to get my second dose of Pfizer vaccine on Saturday.
I’m so happy to see a Spotted Towhee again ! They were ubiquitous around
my little place in Prescott, and I awoke to the sound of their characteristic
“jump-scratch, jump-scratch” every morning . Haven’t seen a one here in
Cedar City, where we got only a measly 1″ of snow last night….but as per your
description, when a storm’s anticipated, the birds really do feed enthusiastically
in preparation for whatever’s coming……
Kris, as you mention towhees can make a lot of noise while doing their “jump-scratch” thing, also called bilateral scratching. Especially when they’re doing it in the dry understory.
Great find and great towhee pictures (softness included). Those red eyes give them an intense look that I like. The third picture looks like some of the places (with houses in the background) I find myself scouting out…’you never know’. It has been a feeding frenzy everyday with these extremely cold temps and snow we have been getting. Six deer have been bedding down every night under the spruce in the back yard after they empty the feeders.
Snow on the ground changes a lot of things doesn’t it, Kathy.
I’m frequently gobsmacked with the magnitude of sheer beauty birds bring our lives! I can linger over their magnificence for long periods of time, pondering where we humans are in the overall scheme of things on this crazy spinning rock. And we humans often lose sight of that spinning-rock reality.
When severe weather happens, my first concern is for the wild critters, surviving in The Great Out There. Life is not often easy for them.
Glad that you got some snow/moisture. It’s Arizona cold here and we had a little sprinkling, but as you said, a mouse could have done a better job. SIGH!
Laura, I’m finally encouraged by our weather pattern. I hope it persists for a while.
I describe that rain as ‘incontinent pigeon rain’. Splat, splat and it is gone.
I so hope you get more.
And yes, of course I worry about the critters. A lot.
Happy snow, Ron! Glad you went with your whim and found the birds; what a beauty, this towhee.
Is it me, or does this bird seem to have a fierceness about him? Maybe it’s the red eye in the black feathering.
Nina, I don’t see that fierceness. To me they always look timid, which in my experience they are.
It was that red eye that got me. Now that i’ve done a little digging i see that the Easterns (which we occasionally see here) don’t have such a vivid red eye as the Westerns. Looking at its eye got me to thinking about dinosaurs, which got me to thinking about fierceness! Being old can be so much fun sometimes, just letting the mind wander where it will.
PS: Happy Valentine’s Day to all
You too.
“You never know unless you go”, I often repeat that to myself when it is miserable out there or just seems futile as zero photo ops are showing up.
Love the Spotted guys and gals. We have maybe six to eight in the back yard every year and they are fun to watch thrashing around under every plant in our yard. Leaves and dirt flying everywhere as they pursue food. We have also been blessed with new little Towhees now for the last three years and they are really fun to watch.
Thanks for the excellent photos and your efforts to give us something during such unpleasant weather.
Everett, I’d LOVE to have nesting towhees in my yard. I’ve actually never seen one anywhere in my neighborhood.