Is It the Bird, or the Photograph?

IC photo/Marie Mischel

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This American robin was photographed April 20 in Washington County by the author.

It’s spring migration for birds, and birdwatchers in St. George are posting beautiful photos that I’d like to duplicate: of the flashy vermilion flycatcher, the dapper black-throated gray warbler and other songbirds. And, of course, if I were to get a decent photo of a California condor, a species that has an established population in the Zion Park area, I’d be on cloud nine for a week.

I tell you that to tell you this: I was in St. George for two days last week and didn’t spend nearly as much time birdwatching as I had planned.

Before you offer condolences, know that it was completely my fault. My standard procedure is to check my equipment before I go out, and I have no sympathy if one of the staff here at the paper comes back from a story without a photo because they didn’t charge their camera beforehand and it died on them. So you can imagine my self-recrimination when I arrived in St. George and found that I’d left my battery charger and spare battery at home, and the battery in the camera had only about two hours’ worth of juice. To make matters worse, I shoot with a high-end Nikon, which requires specialty gear, so I couldn’t just go pick up a new battery charger. I tried, but Google didn’t list a camera equipment store in the St. George area, and the two shops I checked didn’t have anything I could use.

So there I was, in prime birdwatching territory during spring migration, but without a camera. I’d like to say that I adapted and enjoyed simply going out and finding the birds, but I declined that opportunity because I knew it would just be frustrating to see something that would make a perfect photograph but not have a camera to capture it.

 All of which made me ponder why I like birdwatching. I’ve always enjoyed nature, and birdwatching lets me combine a nature hike with my photography hobby. However, while I’m happy to go hiking without my camera, I insist on having it along if I’m looking for birds. Although, now that I think about it, if I’m hiking and see a decent photo, I whip out my cell phone and take a shot to post on Facebook. Our world is filled with wondrous things, and I love sharing when I see one. Word descriptions don’t match the power of a photograph; who was it who said, “A picture is worth a thousand words”?

Sharing the photos I take of the amazing variety of birds is a large part of the reason I like birdwatching. In fact, I have to be careful not to let the lack of a good photo spoil my outing. There are also times when a photo just doesn’t tell the story: A couple of years ago I watched a red-winged blackbird continuously divebomb a great blue heron until the larger bird flew off; my assumption was that the heron got too close to the blackbird’s nest. That’s a story to tell in words, or a video – but I’m not about to lug a video camera on a hike, even if I could afford one with a lens long enough for birdwatching.

All of which leads to the conclusion that there are three aspects, intricately linked, about why I enjoy birdwatching: It gets me out in nature, I see beautiful birds, and I can share the photos I take.

Although the lack of camera limited my most recent trip, I was able to add two new species to my life list. Neither photo is worth sharing, but I did get a couple of decent shots, and I’ll include one here: the American robin is a common species in Utah, but I liked how this one posed for me.

Marie Mischel is editor of the Intermountain Catholic. Reach her at marie@icatholic.org.