Carolina Wren - a perpetual motion machine

While hiking trails north of Houston, Texas, I came across a small bird with exuberant amounts of energy.  It stayed deep inside whatever bush it was in and was difficult to track as it fled as fast as it entered.  I like to keep my eye to the camera's eyepiece continuously as I follow the movements of my quarry, but the fleeting bursts from this little bird made that impossible.  It disappeared completely from view many times in my pursuit of an image; I could only reaquire it by searching for the tiniest movements about me.

I find there are several ways to determine the whereabouts of small creatures that I want to photograph.  It is obviously easier when they present themselves, full bodies in an unobstructed manner, clearly in front of me.  They are rarely that courteous.  Instead, I have to hunt the little rascals down.

Songbirds, being exactly that, will often denote their presence audibly.  My ability to locate them with this alone is tedious at best.  It seems my three-dimensional listening skills are gravely underwhelming.  It works occasionally, but only when patience, a long-winded bird, and a good deal of luck come together.  My best method involves starring.

Our eyesight has an uncanny ability to detect motion.  Hide something in plain sight and it may take a while to find it.  Make it move just a little while watching the area it resides and it is revealed almost instantly.  We don't even have to look at the thing directly, although our peripheral vision lacks the ability to detect detail, it excels at picking up evidence of motion.  From there, our eyes automatically snap to the area of movement, allowing the foveal area of our eyes to locate the perpetrator.  

I used this technique repeatedly when photographing the Carolina wren.  Every time I lost sight of it in my viewfinder I would set both eyes on the scene before me looking for any evidence of its presence.  Eventually, its dynamic, perpetual motion would give it away and I could hone in on it with my camera.  The trick was to use spot-focusing and not let obstacles in the foreground divert the focus point.  

It took quite a bit of time and multiple attempts before I managed to acquire what I must attest to as a poor image.  Still, it was a glorious achievement.  My very first photograph of nature's very own perpetual motion machine.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com