Less than 1/3 of an ounce…
Let me start by saying I am thrilled that so many of you enjoyed the last post with the cranes at the nest! They are such magnificent creatures. I have gone back twice since that morning and I am still working on culling through those shots for you - once I get through them all I will do another post… I have more surprises in store for you from the swamp…
This morning I went to Bullitt for a short wander around - beautiful temps with no wind. I have only four shots to share this morning… but wow! I was doing my usual loop around Bullitt listening to the birdsong when I heard a beautiful song that I have heard before but couldn’t place… who was singing such a beautiful song??? I kept making my way towards that beautiful song …. and then way up at the top of the larch tree I saw the constant flitting around of a kinglet! I can’t tell you how excited this made me… kinglets are soooo hard for me to photograph because they are in constant motion and they are tiny!
Kinglets are less than 4 inches long and weigh less than 1/3 of an ounce - that is hard to believe but it is true! There are golden-crowned and ruby-crowned kinglets- who was way up in that tree? I positioned myself a little further back from the tree so that I would have a better chance of trying to track it as it made its way in every direction in that tree. The light was tough - it was just about sunrise but the sky was socked in with clouds. I kept tracking it, losing it, finding it again, losing again and then I saw another one! Same thing - this one was also way up top of the tree. I had to decide to stick with one bird - it is hard enough to track one never mind two. So I stuck with my original kinglet….and tried and tried…
Some fun things to know about these precious little creatures… they are known as restless, frenetic little birds - they are constantly in motion. The golden-crowned kinglet is considered to be the smallest songbird in the US - it is smaller than the ruby-crowned kinglet. The golden-crowned is a little larger than a hummingbird while the ruby-crowned is larger than both, - but it is still tiny and considered one of the smallest songbirds in our country).
And then it flew into the birch tree to my left! I knew this would give me a better chance as the birch tree has a lot less in the way of leaves and twigs to get in my line of vision. I moved quite aways to my left so that if the sun popped out it would be directly behind me…. Of course the kinglet started way up in the top of the tree - flitting around like crazy. I kept willing it to make its way down to the lower branches…. and it finally did and I saw a flash of red - a male ruby-crowned kinglet! I had to keep messing around with my settings as it was hard for me to find the right combination to account for the lighting and the speed of the tiny kinglet.
Just when I was happy with my settings it moved a little further to my left and landed on a tiny twig in the open!!! At the same time as it landed the lighting went from steel gray to a beautiful soft light - it was magical! Here are the four shots I was able to fire off - all four shots took me less than a total of one second to get off - as soon as I took the last shot it flew back up to the top of the tree! I love everything about them… but wow - those eyes! How cute is that body shape?
Honestly, doesn’t this just make you smile?
And there is that gorgeous patch of red!
Less than 1/3 of an ounce….