Quick Lesson In Bird Feeding Etiquette…

When I was photographing “Myrtle” Yellow-rumped Warblers at the Spring Valley Wildlife Area, I encountered a lot of interesting behavior.  The most interesting behavior of all, however, was behavior that originally had me very frustrated.  I was shooting at 3fps (and the speedlight keeping up…got to love the outboard battery!) and so caught this particular Myrtle hopping around and being annoying, or so I thought.  In looking at the photographs, he was hunting, and I had just witnessed the stalking and killing of the prey, in this case, a smallish wood ant.  I could go on and on about this, but, really, I can’t – besides, it wouldn’t do it justice.  I’ll let the photographic sequence tell the story.  I’ll keep the pithy comments to myself.  Interestingly enough, Photobucket resequenced the photographs completely wrong, so I’ll do my best to reassemble them, here…

See something tasty? Let’s get a closer look… *boing* Hmmm… Yes…food! Mmmm…ant. ANTi-climactic?

So, there you have it.  You’re wondering about the title and etiquette and all that?  Well, the etiquette comes from not disturbing the bird while it’s trying to eat.  You’ll recall the stink-eye I got from the Osprey when I was photographing him and he dropped his fish.  He tried to play it off, but you could tell, he was getting a little crabby about not having his fish…   See you can just tell…he’s trying to play it off, but has THAT look.  This was from LAST year’s tax day trip.  He looks as happy as the rest of us.  However, the lesson here is to not interrupt dinner, just document it.

So, happy birding.  Be sure to get out while the Warblers are busy eating and not caring how many humans are about.  It can be very rewarding, and if you’re lucky enough to have a little slice of the semi-circle of life (I haven’t yet seen an ant eat a warbler…), you’ll cherish it.  I know I will.