Capturing a Creeper

Brown Creeper

Yesterday I went to Paletta Mansion and Park here in Burlington for a quick nose about on my lunch break. I wasn't expecting much, maybe a Caspian Tern patrolling the shore line or a Hermit Thrush skulking in the bushes. I didn't see either of those birds, but I did manage to see a bird that eluded me all winter.

Last winter at Paletta I became quite adept at spotting Brown Creepers as they searched a tree for insects. They have a very distinct way of searching for their food, and I was able to spot one or two most days I went. This winter I hadn't seen one at all until yesterday. While at Paletta I stood on a bridge near the shore and looked at the trees for signs of movement. I thought to myself that I would probably have to wait until much later in the year to get a Creeper on my year list. I had only ever seen them in the winter before, although they are apparently permanent residents throughout most of their range.

Brown Creeper

As I got about halfway along the path I spotted three Brown-Headed Cowbirds - my first of the year - on a branch above the path. The two males and a female were sitting close together, and I thought they would be my only year bird for the day. Along the path there were plenty of male Red-Winged Blackbirds, but I didn't spy any females. I saw a flash of a Northern Flicker flying away from me; the white patch on his/her rump and the yellow under his/her wings was quite noticeable.

Coming up to the second bridge (closest to the parking lot) I saw movement off to the side of the path, and looking through the branches saw a Creeper making his way up a tree. I got a few pictures of him as he worked his way up, using manual focus as the camera had difficulty picking out a subject through the layers of branches. I thought these would be my only shots of the Creeper as I have had difficulty approaching them in the past.

Mourning Dove

The distinct feeding behaviour I mentioned earlier is to start at the bottom of a tree and spiral upwards probing the bark for insects. Each time the Creeper is presented with a "fork in the road," so to speak, he unhesitatingly chooses a path. When he gets high enough in the tree for his liking, he flies down to the base of a new tree and starts spiraling upward again. In my - admittedly short - time observing Creepers, I have never seen one search the same tree twice in a row, nor have I seen one move downward on a tree. You can see from the above photos that they have very long claws to grasp the bark and a long down-curved bill to find and devour insects.

I was in luck on this day, however, as the next tree he chose was closer to me and I had a less obstructed view from the path. I had a nice view as he stopped on the trunk to do a bit of grooming, and saw him pick something from the bark and eat it. I noticed the direction he was moving and took a small offshoot from the path and waited for him to come closer. He obliged by searching two trees right in front of me, and my difficulty now was following him through the camera at such close range. He was so close that every time he went around behind the trunk I would have to take my eye from the viewfinder to see where he reemerged to track him again. Both the above pictures are uncropped frames, showing how close I was able to get.

Canada Goose

I have a tendency to ignore common birds in my photography because there are so many of them around all the time. For some reason it seems that an unusual or rare bird is more worthy of a photograph because of the out-of-the-ordinary nature of the bird, when in fact many of the common birds are more lovely. Take the Mourning Dove photo above. I would usually pass up the opportunity to photograph the dove, but this bird seemed so cooperative and the conditions so perfect that I took a few shots. The Canada Goose picture above has a nice feel to it, and as I watched the waves crash in to shore I decided the photo would probably tell a good story.

Mallards, European Starlings, and American Robins are other examples of birds that are so common I tend not to notice them. I think I am going to concentrate more on pictures that tell a good story or have many good elements in my photography from now on. Capturing a rare bird through the camera is still something I will enjoy and do, and I also like to try and get a better picture of a particular bird than I currently have. The pictures I got of the Creeper yesterday are definitely my best of the species.