Catbird

For many weeks, I've been referring to 2002 as "the year of the catbird." I thought I'd document that by collecting some of the pictures I've taken of various catbirds in the area.

This youngster was on a tree in the front yard. Only a few moments earlier, I'd taken a picture of a robin on the same branch. This was as close as I've gotten to a catbird this year.

In retrospect, last year was the year of the brown headed cowbird. It's astonishing how few of them I've seen this year.

This is one of a pair of birds who had a nest in a bush in our backyard. I never did succeed in locating the nest itself, but this branch was one of their favorite perches on the way into the bush.

Most of the time, I left them to their own devices, but this particular afternoon, I couldn't resist getting close enough to take some decent pictures. They weren't very happy with me, making mewing noises as they worked their way along the fence to this branch.

This shot was taken a few hours later in the early evening. It's one of the few I've taken with the flash; generally, I don't like using a flash when taking pictures of birds for fear that the flash will do them harm. But these birds had set up residence in the shadiest part of our backyard, about the only place that the sun doesn't reach.

This bird is perched on top of the back fence; those lights in the background are my back neighbor's house lights.

This catbird was exploring one of the paved paths in the park at Highlands on the day when I took the picture looking straight up at the cedar waxwing. I think it was seeing this bird that made me realize just how many catbirds I'd been encountering this year.

This is a more typical location for a catbird, hiding in the vegetation at the side of our house. I think of it as our little bit of wilderness. The catbirds love it there, but we also see robins, sparrows, chickadees, and grackles there, as well as the occasional tufted titmouse.

This might be the same bird as in the top picture.

Here's one of the adults exploring another part of our wilderness. This is about as good a picture as I can take in that part of the yard. It just never gets light enough to take a good picture.

I'm guessing that our patch of ivy is a haven for worms and bugs and that's what brings both the catbirds and the robins to this part of the yard.

These three shots were taken near the famous duck pond. I had followed a sparrow into the woods at the side of the road on the north bank of the water. I would not have noticed the catbirds had they not suddenly started clucking and titching at me.

It was almost as though they were overtly trying to attract my attention while at the same time making hard for me to get a good picture by flitting from branch to branch.

There's no way I could exclude this famous picture, even though it was taken last year. I must have been no more than six feet away from the bird when I took this picture.

I had been using its tree as a shade tree while attempting to get a picture of a yellow bird I'd seen in the area. I must have been too close to its nest because it literally came out on to the outside of the tree to scold me.