Hooded Warbler
Blue Ridge Parkway/North Carolina Mountains WW workshop.
We found this guy mid afternoon when the light was challenging. It is not that there are not quite a few of this species that we encounter but the location was perfect as I was fairly confident I could perch him on one of a series of snags popping up from a very large downed tree. The bird was singing uphill and the snags were on the downhill side of the road putting them at mid canopy level. Hooded warblers tend to often respond rather silently to playback. He was singing persistently uphill so when I played a single song and he stopped I knew he heard it. So you wait and resist the urge to use more playback. Then I heard him singing partial songs very softly on the downhill side not even noticing prior to that that he had crossed the road. It was barely audible and my client didn't hear him. A few gentle chip notes and he perched right where I anticipated he would bursting into song. When a bird responds like that rather than being jumpy back and forth you've done well and are much more apt to get better images and you've most probably minimized any impact on the bird.
Hooded Warbler
Blue Ridge Parkway/North Carolina Mountains WW workshop.
We found this guy mid afternoon when the light was challenging. It is not that there are not quite a few of this species that we encounter but the location was perfect as I was fairly confident I could perch him on one of a series of snags popping up from a very large downed tree. The bird was singing uphill and the snags were on the downhill side of the road putting them at mid canopy level. Hooded warblers tend to often respond rather silently to playback. He was singing persistently uphill so when I played a single song and he stopped I knew he heard it. So you wait and resist the urge to use more playback. Then I heard him singing partial songs very softly on the downhill side not even noticing prior to that that he had crossed the road. It was barely audible and my client didn't hear him. A few gentle chip notes and he perched right where I anticipated he would bursting into song. When a bird responds like that rather than being jumpy back and forth you've done well and are much more apt to get better images and you've most probably minimized any impact on the bird.