Eastern Phoebe, Little Maquoketa River Valley, Eastern Iowa
A couple nights ago some frost came along, making for a chilly Saturday morning. It did not stop me to go out with the camera when I saw the movements of a flycatcher in the front yard. The bird turned out to be an Eastern Phoebe, a species I haven’t seen in a while. More often the phoebe is present here in spring and I believe I photographed it for the first time in the fall. There is a similar looking flycatcher around during the summer, the Eastern Wood-Pewee, but they migrate much further to South America, and the pewee left some time ago already. The Eastern Phoebe spends the winter in southeast North America and Central America.
I’m not the only one who calls this “killer light”, when a slightly muted sun in crisp fall air hits the scene. I had a great time sitting on the porch, sipping on a hot cup of coffee, and shooting away with the long lens and 1.4 teleconverter attached to the camera. The Eastern Phoebe is a lovely bird to watch. They pump their tail up and down while sitting on a perch (a pewee doesn’t do that). and look out for insects. As the air warmed up fast in the morning, the phoebe caught most of its prey just above the grass below. We may think, it’s cold, no insects, but the birds know where to find and how to feed on them.