Christmas all year!
By Dave Hanks
I can’t wait for the dawn when the sun lights the sky,
To photograph beast or bird as each passes by!
I’m like a Christmas Eve kid thrashing in bed sleeplessly,
Anxious to open those presents that are under the tree.
But I don’t seek presents wrapped with tinsel or bow.
Nevertheless they are gifts that “set me aglow”.
There are never enough minutes in each safari day,
To “shoot” all the species that come our way.
But those that I capture in each camera frame,
Excite me like Christmas! It’s all just the same.
I can’t wait for the dawn when the sun lights the sky,
To photograph beast or bird as each passes by!
SCOTT’S ORIOLE is a special gift. It is a southwestern species that combines yellow with the oriole black, instead of the usual orange. It’s a medium-sized oriole with a black hood that extends onto its breast and back. Its belly and rump are a bright yellow.
We have seen this species in the scrublands of southeastern Arizona, and in the juniper/scrub oak forests of Arizona’s Madera Canyon. Yucca is a plant with which it is closely associated. Yucca is used as both a nesting site and also its fibers and leaves as nesting material. This insectivore is one of the first birds to start singing each morning before sunrise, as well as throughout theday in summer - a real songster that will even sing in the winter.
(Resting on a stump my wife provided for that purpose)
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