Adult male Black-necked Stilt in flight – Nikon D810, f7.1, 1/2500, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
I dove back into my archives and found this adult male Black-necked Stilt flying over the marshes at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge photo to share today. I took this Black-necked Stilt photo on August 7, 2016 which is exactly four years ago today which is when the world felt a little more “sane” and when there wasn’t a global pandemic.
By going through my older image files I can see where I’ve been and what birds I was seeing in any given month during previous years. When I’ve gone through my files this year I have felt a sense of melancholy because this probably has been the weirdest year for me as a bird photographer ever. I haven’t been able to go to places that I love because of travel restrictions earlier in the pandemic which means I missed out on photographing so many birds. I believe I’ve made the best of this situation and even though I have stuck close to home I’ve been able to fill up my hard drives with thousands of image files of birds since the middle of March.
Still, I’ve felt varying degrees of disappointment when comparing “what should have been” with the way we have had to adjust to life and living during a global pandemic as I am sure many of us have this year. We are not alone though and I find some measure of comfort in that.
For example, my youngest son Chris and his wife Sabrina haven’t been taking their monthly camping trips this year because of the pandemic, closures of state parks, campgrounds and their concerns about being able to stay safe from the virus away from home. After a long hiatus from camping they recently went on a trip to Devil’s Bathtub in Virginia and had a marvelous time.
Sabrina writes about their camping trip adventures, cooking, food, restaurant and camping gear reviews, disc golf, and about learning to enjoy the simple pleasures in life on her blog “This Uncomplicated Life”. Today I wanted to introduce Sabrina’s blog to all of you by sharing what she wrote about their most recent camping adventure and the photos she took during their journey.
Click the link to view Sabrina’s thoughts and photos from their trip “Back To The Bathtub“.
I know I enjoy all of Sabrina’s blog posts and I hope that you will as well.
Life is good. Stay safe.
Mia
Thank you so much for the link to Sabrina’s blog.
Simply gorgeous.
I can empathize with you about missing a lot of opportunities for birding. It is a chance to find and sort those old files. I wear a mask but that doesn’t protect me from those who don’t wear them. I did go to a national park a couple of weeks ago to areas that were open and where safety measures taken. Popular trails were marked with directional markers and reminders to physically distance. I was happy to get to nature because I am sure it kept my sanity. I went to your daughter-in-laws site. Wow! That first photo was stunnng !
Yup, great post! Read “Sabrina’s thoughts and photos from their trip “Back To The Bathtub“. Enjoyed it very much!
I feel very fortunate that we/I can drive, photograph and simply commune with nature! I don’t know how I would survive otherwise.
Such a calm, beautiful image. Stilt is such an apt name for these birds. And you’re absolutely right: pre-election 2016 was a whole different ballgame. Now, life feels as stilted as a poorly-written essay — and worse!
Thank you for sharing your DIL’s blog. I’m always looking for some calm, ports in this storm we’re currently experiencing.
Speaking of poorly-written, there shouldn’t be a comma between “calm” and “ports.” Sigh.🙀
Thanks for sharing your pandemic mind and your son and ihs wife’s adventure. She’s got her mother in laws voice in many ways. I enjoyed her blog post.
We truly are all in this together, though it doesn’t feel that way. Vermonters have adopted social distancing and the face mask which has become a new cultural norm. Yes, pockets of resistance, but by far most know this is the right thing to do and the mask has created a sense of safety and shared public spiritedness, so important today. On the pandemic maps Vermont is a tiny island of green and we are grateful for our fellow travelers, human and non-human alike. Our trailheads, swimming holes (we’ve had a hot droughty summer) are crowded and there are a ton of out of staters up here now in second homes – the ones that can afford to leave the city, who have second homes… opening yet again a whole host of social justice questions about those most susceptible, and about manners in the outdoors, norms, and what is public and what has felt like local and “ours” until now. I’m yammering. Thank you for being our birder coping with change.