21 May 2020: Photography Challenge in a Pop-Up Blind
House Wren in Tamarack Boughs
When we work from home, the lines of work blur. As a teacher, I have never been caught up, not in nearly 20 years. Today, I suddenly found myself caught up in my work, to the best of my knowledge, and in desperate need of some escape. Still, I didn't feel comfortable abandoning the home office of my virtual classroom. For two months, the Covid-19 pandemic had turned my life into a nearly continuous day of teaching, unsure of when to stop and what kinds of breaks to take. I had given my all, and now, with the last assignments given, students wrapping up projects on their own, and just one, single paper to grade, I stepped away into an uncertain void.
American Goldfinch in Tamarack Boughs
I awoke from a troubled mid-day nap and realized the solution to my confusion waited for me in the back yard. Peak warbler migration hadn't really made an impression yet, but the indicator of good warbler movements, the Tennessee Warbler, had arrived. I could hear Tennessee Warbler song from multiple trees in the neighborhood, so I set up my Doghouse portable wildlife blind in the back yard next to my tamarack trees. I had built a makeshift birdbath there, and birds were starting to frequent the area.
Nashville Warbler
In just one hour, as I collected my thoughts and got my bearings in this new reality, a beautiful and diverse cadre of birds made their way, one by one, through the lower branches of my tamarack tree. I made art, leaned into my camera, and breathed. Nature, in my own back yard, had again restored me. Every moment carries the potential for great mystery and beauty. Sometimes, we just need to find a focal point and wait patiently in beauty for nature to remind us who we are.
All images were made with a Canon 7D and a Canon 300mm f4 L lens.
