Moments of Nature
When my husband and I began birdwatching 40+ years ago, there was really only one good bird guide, Roger Tory Peterson’s A Field Guide to the Birds, better known as Peterson’s. I don’t know if newer editions contain these pages, but one of our favorite sources of amusement was the section called “Confusing Spring Warblers” and “Confusing Fall Warblers.” These enabled us to feel a little less stupid when we saw a blur of yellow in spring or fall. Saying, “Oh, there’s a Confusing Fall Warbler” let people know that we were at least intelligent enough to have studied this portion of Peterson’s. Nowadays we have help from myriad books and, better yet, Merlin, the app that can ID even the most confusing warbler from its photo or its call. A big thank-you to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which can be found at allaboutbirds.org
Our drought notwithstanding, we’ve been blessed this fall with many opportunities to photograph warblers and other migratory birds as they head south on the Central Flyway. As a result, this seemed like a perfect time to showcase the work of several of our local photographers, some of whom have ventured out to natural areas to locate birds, and some of whom have encountered them in their own backyards.
Many thanks to these photographers: Jennifer Bauerkemper, Alice Le Duc, Stephen Ramirez, and Carolyn Whiteside. Several of my own photographs are also included. Birds in each of the following photos will be identified by species, along with the photographer’s last name.
** Most of these species are just passing through, though one, the white-eyed vireo, does breed here. All photos were taken either in San Marcos or the nearby Hill Country.
Susan Hanson, Editor, The Loop
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