Eastern kingbird feeding chicks

This is one of my favouite photos from last year.

I photographed this last year at the start of our summer holiday.  We were visiting Creston, BC and had gone to visit the bird sanctuary west of the town.  There were lots of birds, but the thing that really caught my attention was the number of nests I found.  The one that stood out the most, in my mind, was the nesting site of the western kingbird pair.  I accidentally discovered the nest by paying attention to a pair of kingbirds.  I noticed that they did not stray far from a certain tree and only later saw the nest.

The nest was empty of chicks; eggs were the only inhabitants.  I got a couple of shots of the mating couple and returned to my explorations.  I came back a few days later and discovered that the nestlings had emerged.  They were very small and vulnerable, hardly able to raise their heads.  No shots of any value were captured on that day.  My next visit was going to produce dramatic results.

The third trip to the sanctuary was awesome.  I arrived early in the morning while the light was still very good.  Approaching the nest with the sun at my back, I had an excellent view of the now stronger chicks.  The bonus was the lack of shadows on my subjects.  I stayed still for quite a while and the birds became acclimated to my presence.  Patience paid off and I got the above photo.  It is the same shot that I use on the cover of my book, Photography for Birders (and other wildlife enthusiasts).  Go to this website to see it. 

I wrote this blog today because I heard faint cheeping noises coming from the nest box in my bird garden.  The breeding pair of chickadees successfully hatched their young in spite of the annoying behaviour of local cats.  I am going to put some chicken wire behind the birdhouse to keep the predators at bay.  As the young get larger I hope to have a few photos of them poking their hungry heads out of the hole to be the first ones to devour whatever delicacies are brought to them.

Thanks for reading.