Photo Gallery

Just Another Day In The Canopy

Blaine J. Rothauser, Wildlife & Landscape Photographer

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Maybe you get your kicks out of ball room dancing or bungee jumping off bridges. Who knows - maybe you prefer dinner at Maloney and Porchelli's followed by a night of Les Mes. Still others are just as happy melting blobuless in the coach watching Rueben Studdard belt out Motown in his quest to become next American Idol. Myself, I favor getting high. I'm not referring to the high one gets from snorting crystal meth laced with opiated hashish oils. I'm referring to the high one finds from being perched in the canopy of a deciduous forest on a boom lift in May watching the leaves come alive with winged jewels. No other place would I rather be. It's a spectacle that happens in any back yard that is laced with oaks, hickories and maples that at the time of "leaf-out" correlate with the hatching of geometrid caterpillars, (inch worms to most of us) which become the impetus for my elevated pleasure as well as food for fodder for neotropical songbirds.

I rented a 60 foot boom lift machine this May for one week (boy did I wish I had it for a month - too much green) where I spent the first hours of light photographing warblers, vireos and orioles in their playground. I witnessed the foraging habits of many species close-up and personal that in past times I only caught a fleeting glimpse and a sore neck.

Yours truly in boom

As a wildlife photographer the challenges were many. For instance the arm of the boom that I was attached too was inclined to wobble with any shift of body movement I made to position myself for a shot. Following a bird with a long lens through the labyrinth of leaves was also a challenge. Most of the birds I observed seemed to have an aversion to sun light and stayed within the shady portions of the canopy, further exacerbating by endeavor. The picture of the Chestnut-sided warbler above was only possible because the bird had taken a break during his busy foraging schedule to rest for all of three minutes just long enough for me to grab a few frames. The fact that a leaf or a branch was not in the way of me and the bird was a small miracle.

I was amazed by the variety of species I bore witness to in my backyard canopy and equally amazed at the frequency in which they appeared and disappeared. At times I thought I would fall asleep waiting for activity and than as if blown in by the wind a mixed flock of five different species would appear. Ornithologists will tell you that during migration mixed flock conglomerates of wood warblers (family dendroica) are a common occurrence.

The bird I saw the most of in the tree tops was the red-eyed vireo (Vireo olivaceus). More often heard than seen this bird whose nickname, the preacher I found to aptly named. "Who is it? Is that you? You know it. Who sees it? And on and on to the point where I said aloud "shut up already and sit still so I can take your flippin picture". This bird avoids the light like a vampire avoids a garlic clove. The picture you see here was of a male bathed in natural light.

Red-eyed Vireo

Another warbler who made his presence known every time I was canopy searching was the common yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas). I call this species my buddy because it always seems to be following me wherever I travel. For unlike most warblers who confine their foraging to specific sub-divisions of habitat the yellowthroat has claimed it all. I've seen these birds glean gall wasps from the canopy and gnats from stream sides and everything in between -forest floors, in shrubs, and open marsh. This masked bandit is hell-bent on insect consumption and doesn't give a flying fish for the where, what's and the how's. Yellowthroats are indeed the blue-collared workers of the warbling world.

Common Yellow throat

Yes indeed the canopy is the place to be in May!

Happy naturalizing this spring to all my friends and colleagues!

Baltimore Oriole - 67' in the top of a Pin Oak

Warbler factoid - Confined to the Western Hemisphere this guild of passerines is actively measuring the barometric pressure of environmental health. Unfortunately they are not forecasting good things these days. Habitat fragmentation, rain forest destruction, feral cat predation, collisions with man-made structures and cow bird parasitism has all played hell on this group of precious birds and at the same time warning us that the race to the finish line is drawing near.