At last it’s May. I have to say I have been looking forward to May ever since last May. You see, May is the time when tiny colorful birds called warblers grace our local woodlots for a few weeks, as they migrate north. Last May, was the first time I ever attempted to photograph these tiny birds and I was immediately hooked. Warbler photography is extremely challenging for a lot of reasons. First of all, warblers are generally very small about the size of a chickadee (about 4″ long). Secondly, they are in constant motion as they search for small insects on which they feed (imagine a two year old child with wings after two cups of coffee). All of these challenges are compounded by the fact that warblers are usually in the woods where there is very little light. They spend there time picking insects from all the leaves which also hide the birds making it very hard to get a clear view of one of these birds. It is low percentage shooting, I would estimate that I take a few hundred pictures of warblers for every truly good one I get.
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Here is a more stylistic image of a warbler, a blackpoll, I really like the implied motion in this image.
Blackpoll Warbler
Yellow Warbler in Song