Luck and Patience

I am learning that luck and patience are key ingredients to bird photography. Here are one instance of luck, and two of patience.

Veerys sing along our river but I rarely see one. On a gray day in mid-June, I was with a group on Hogback Mountain and had excellent looks at a Veery, but due to the distance of the bird, my photos were indifferent. A couple of days later, I returned to the spot in hopes that I could improve on the photos. I heard the Veery in many spots, but never had a glimpse of one. At one point, I wandered from the trail to a forest opening near where I thought I had heard one singing. I pished quietly a few times. Almost immediately, this Hermit Thrush appeared, stayed still, and sang for me ...

That same afternoon, I went to a neighbor's field where a pair Great-crested Flycatchers had claimed one of his nest boxes. I put my camera on a tripod, attached the remote button, then sat for an hour in the grass in the hot sun as the birds went to and from the nest box ...

When I had enough of the sun, I moved to a shady spot and focused on a nest box where Tree Swallows were feeding young, and waited for the arrival of the parents ...

Good birding!