I’ve been an avid birdwatcher since I was a child. One of the first books I remember buying with the money I made from working after school was Audubon’s Guide to Birds, which I used to identify the many species of birds in East Texas where I grew up. Since then, wherever I’ve lived, I’ve spent at least some of my time photographing or just watching the local avian life.
One thing I learned very early in my birdwatching activities is that birds are flighty creatures (no pun intended) and getting a good look at them, and in particular getting good photos of them, requires patience and persistence.
Those traits have been tested to the limit since I moved from the Washington, DC area to historic Frederick, Maryland, a small city with a very bucolic environment that is a bird watcher’s paradise. With the exception of sea gulls and some of the other coastal birds, like ospreys, almost every species of bird life that’s native to Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania can be found here.
But, some of them are easier to find than others.
Shortly after arrival I became acquainted with many of my fellow birdwatchers as I walked the trails along the Monocacy River, which is less than a half mile from my townhouse. We birdwatchers instantly recognize each other. We’re the only ones hiking that have cameras with telephoto lens hanging around our necks.
The first day I went walking, I was told that there were three things I had to look for that would be hard to see: owls, bald eagles, and the nest of great blue herons.
The herons themselves are easy to see because they wade in the shallows of the rivers and the runoff streams in the early morning looking for fish. Their nests, though, usually near the tops of very tall trees, are hardy to find. Barred owls, and the occasional horned owl, can be heard in early morning and late in the afternoon hooting at each other. Each has a distinctive call. They call to each other as they hunt and are hard to find. The bald eagle stays in tall trees, perched and looking for unsuspecting prey on the ground.
The hunt was on. I walked back trails and main trails, and on occasion even ventured into parts of the forest lining the river where trails hadn’t been broken. I walk two to four miles every day for exercise, and take my camera on every walk—just in case.
After eight months, my persistence paid off. I found an area of the forest where three or four pairs of barred owls had nests. I never found the nests, but managed to catch some great shots of the owls perched high in the trees looking for prey.
The nests of the herons—well, one next actually—took longer. Twenty-six months to be exact. But, one day in early November 2024, as I walked a trail that I hadn’t been on in many weeks, I spotted, high up in a tree that had lost most of its leaves, a large, barrel-shaped nest. Keeping well back, I walked a circle around that tree and even though I didn’t catch a picture of the heron actually on it, I did get one of it perched nearby, watching the next and watching me to make sure I didn’t come too close.
Barred owls and a heron nest. Finally, I got the photos. I’m still on the lookout for a horned owl and the bald eagle. I don’t plan to quit until I get the picture. | NWI
