Often when I am photographing birds and other critters in Siouxland, I strive to get tight shots when permissible. For one thing, with small birds, they tend to get lost in the foliage of nearby bushes or tree limbs. And when taking their images I think about the movie quote from the Billy Wilder film “Sunset Boulevard” that has most likely bantered about for ages since its original usage.
As noted on the website “shmoop” dot com:
” This misquoted line is spoken by Norma Desmond, played by Gloria Swanson, in the film Sunset Boulevard, directed by Billy Wilder (1950).
At the end of Sunset Boulevard, delusional crackpot (i.e., actress) Norma Desmond stalks toward a camera, thinking it’s a movie camera, saying, “All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.” In reality, it’s a news camera and everyone is there because she’s about to be arrested for murder. What a misunderstanding.
Many people misquote the line as “I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille.” It’s a minor mistake that doesn’t change the meaning of the quote. But hey, that’s what we do. We take a close-up look at quotes and find all the flaws. Check yourself before you misquote yourself. “
But in a way, it is true. There are good angles from which to take a person’s or object’s photograph or portrait, and then there is probably a better angle.
There are those days while traversing parts of Siouxland where I have a chance encounter with a local “resident”, that I feel I am intruding on someone’s personal space, even from a distance.
Recently in Bacon Creek Park after a brisk walk in very cold temperatures I spied a downy woodpecker looking for a snack on some frozen cattails near a small lake. It was fine for a minute or so, but then realized I was taking an interest and thus began the stare down. The little guy was busy and I figured how many photos of a downy woodpecker do I really need swaying in a cold breeze on a cold winter’s day?
Many mornings when it’s pleasant enough to sit outside in the morning to enjoy that first “cup of Joe” in Siouxland I will hear a familiar reframe. Knock, knock, knock, knock in a staccato kind of fashion. And then see the visitor looking for a more reliable treat after checking the usual spots for insects. Nothing wrong with a little desert.
A white-breasted nuthatch flicks its tongue as it eats a snack at a feeder in the backyard of a residence Friday, Sept. 17, 2021 in Sioux City, Iowa.
With the changing seasons, now fall into winter, I am not certain which little guys will stick around for the winter visiting feeders in the neighborhood. As I traveled about Siouxland this year I sometimes found myself enjoying watching winged creatures closer to home than at some nature preserves. It was also nice to just be able to sit on a deck and drink coffee and watch the antics provided by these small neighbors. And slowly, very slowly, I am learning a bit about the different species. In particular, I have learned there are more than a dozen local sparrow species and sometimes telling them apart is not easy. So I am finding my learning curve a bit long in the tooth.
I have learned it takes a bit of patience to sit quietly watching these skittish creatures come eat and fly off, some species like the white-breasted nuthatch and black capped chickadee barely landing before flying away with a meal to eat elsewhere and then returning some more and repeating this pattern continuously. Other birds, like the sparrows will sit and munch a while before leaving.
I would guess I have taken in excess a few thousand images of birds in my neighborhood, trying to improve on the photographs of the ones previously taken. Tweaking the technique and then hoping for that extra second or two before the little creature bolts to “safety”, although learning when they may come back for more and figuring out time of day for feeding habit. Surprisingly I found that mid-afternoon seems to be a feeding time as opposed to early morning and early evening, both of which I have found the birds feeding. But education in any form is always good and am already looking forward to next year when the weather warms up a tad and the birds are once again active.
I spent a recent Saturday morning, Dec. 22, 2012, and early afternoon hiking in local areas as I followed two members of the Loess Hills Audubon Society during their annual Christmas bird count in Siouxland. The members fan out throughout the local area and look for as many different types of bird species as they can see. Relying on their eyes and ears to spot various birds chattering away amongst a tangle of tree branches and shrubs.
Helen Harvey became interested in birding after becoming unemployed for a short period. “I used my husband’s bird book and looked up these birds I saw while eating breakfast and realized, “Wow! That thing’s (bird) is going up to the Artic. It’s kind of an insight into a world of wildlife you don’t experience any other way”, that is, getting out and birding. Harvey said she saw another bird at a feeder in her backyard but after several attempts could never find it in a bird book. Then one day she did find this bird in a book and saw there is only one spot in the entire U.S. where this particular species lives, and it was in the same area she lived in at the time. “So I started realizing there is a whole world of interesting things. I basically started as a backyard birder and over the years it kind of snowballed and has become a bit of an odd obsession.”
Harvey said a recent odd and unexpected sighting occurred when she was out chasing starlings in an industrial area of Sioux City and saw a whooping crane in this same industrial area in town. “There are only 300 of these in the western wild of the U.S. and to catch a glimpse of one in an industrial park in Sioux City…….” Harvey said as she started laughing. She said she trembled the rest of the day from witnessing that.
Randy Williams attended an ornithology class in 1974 while in college and later worked as a seasonal interpreter at Wind Cave National Park in western South Dakota. Williams moved to Sioux City, Iowa, in 1981 and found the local Audubon Society and became involved with the group, although he says he is a more casual birder than some other locals.
Williams says he has attended some regional birding trips and get togethers but nothing as exotic as going to Ecuador where some other locals have traveled to look for birds. Williams said he’s enjoyed seeing a Bean goose and the Sandhill cranes as well as thousands of snow geese at the DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge near Missouri Valley, Iowa.
Most times on bird count outings Williams said they usually scare up smaller birds like juncos, woodpeckers and generally also see turkeys that are somewhat wild as well as seeing pigeons and add them to the count, although these birds are not in any kind of danger as some others that migrate through or whose habitats have been affected over the years. Williams said the local Audubon society’s objective is to break 50 species during the counting but it is challenging because there is not as wide a variety of habitat as say on a coastline where there are even more birds that would include gulls, shore birds and such, because this area is landlocked without a large lake or other bodies of water.
The day ended for Williams and Harvey with some satisfaction and some disappoint in what they saw. Besides the birds, they also encountered a number of deer and one coyote. The report Williams filed for the local society included: six red-tailed hawks, three bald eagles, 70 wild turkeys, 10 rock doves, 18 red-bellied woodpeckers, four northern flickers, 15 downy woodpeckers, six hairy woodpeckers, eight blue jays, 17 American crows, 25 black-capped chickadees, 16 white-breasted nuthatches, six eastern bludbirds, one American robin, 60 European starlings, two cedar waxwings, 15 dark-eyed juncos, six northern cardinals and 4 house sparrows. They traveled two miles on foot and 52 miles by car covering areas that included Logan Cemetery and Stone State Park.
I live in the Siouxland area that encompasses a wide swatch of land in northwest Iowa, northeastern Nebraska and southeastern South Dakota. The people that inhabit this area are generous folk and your basic honest, Midwestern people you like to have as neighbors. I explore the area and share observations, mostly photographic, sometimes through video, and and short text. All images and video are copyrighted material of the author.
Jerry Mennenga, Sioux City, Iowa
jerrylmennenga@yahoo.com
lostinsiouxland 