The last week taught us again how much we are blessed with the location where we live. Today we counted the 70th bird species that we saw here around our house on top of the bluffs of the Little Maquoketa Valley near Durango, Iowa. No, this post is not about today’s discovery, this has to wait for another blog post :-) .We know the close proximity of the Mississippi River plays a role in having this large variety of wildlife. The Mississippi is a highway for migrating birds but even all the species that are here all year long, or just during the summer, make for a never boring time when it comes to wildlife.
My “warbler week” series continues with the beautiful Cape May Warbler. I have seen this species last spring for a fraction of a minute. My 2013 shots were all blurry and I wondered if I will see this bird again. Last Tuesday came my chance. I saw the warbler from my office window, run outside, and shot like a maniac for a few minutes. We saw it later again but I never got this close a second time.
Rule #1 in wildlife photography is, if the eye is not sharp the image goes to the trash can or at least will not be published. Sometimes I keep a blurry photo just for the sake of identification and documentation within my own photo library. But there is always an exception to any rule and this is what this photo is about. I caught the moment when the Cape May Warbler was about to swallow a tiny little insect that looks like it was glued to it’s tongue. The body of the bird is sharp and the head in its extremely fast movement really tells the story how fast these warblers move and pick up little insects from the leaves.