Inquisitive looking Warbling Vireo, Morgan County, UtahInquisitive looking Warbling Vireo – Nikon D500, f6.3, 1/1250, ISO 800, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

It almost doesn’t need saying that being a bird photographer isn’t easy and that it can be frustrating at times but I am saying it again. Last week I drove up into the High Uinta Mountains by way of the open sections of Mirror Lake Highway because I hadn’t been up there yet this year and because I wanted to check out the bird activity. Normally by now the highway is open all the way to Evanston, Wyoming but because of heavy snow this year parts of it are still closed.

I checked out some of the areas I have known to be birdy in the past and photographed some Pine Siskins and a close flycatcher that I have yet to identify but my real bird photography frustration came as I checked out some of the dirt side roads off of the main paved road. I had pulled off onto a narrow dirt road lined on one side by small aspens and a few conifers that had a disperse campsite on the other side and I could hear birds in the wooded side which was to my delight the side of my Jeep that I could photograph from easily. Or so I thought.

I spotted a Warbling Vireo moving around in the small aspens, shut off the engine and hoped I could get photos of the singing vireo but to my dismay the vireo moved in so close to me that I couldn’t use my D500 with the 500mm lens attached, it was so close I could not focus on the bird because of the minimum focusing distance limit of my lens. I had my D810 out with a 18 to 200mm lens attached but I couldn’t even use that because of the angle of my Jeep in the narrow dirt road plus the vireo had moved so I could only see it through my windshield and I had zero room left on road to maneuver into a position where I could actually photograph the Warbling Vireo. The vireo was so close that if I could have stepped out of my Jeep that in two steps I could have touched it while it sang.

It was frustrating to me because I only have a few images of Warbling Vireos in my portfolio and I wanted so badly to add photos of the one I saw so close to me.

I had this gorgeous Warbling Vireo up close singing its tiny heart out and I couldn’t photograph it so I sat and watched it sing and move around in the aspens. I have no photos of it that I can share but I do have the memory of it that I can.

Life is good even with frustrations.

Mia

The Warbling Vireo in the photo above was taken last September in the Wasatch Mountains.

Click here to see more of my Warbling Vireo photos plus facts and information about this species.