Wildlife Around our Front Yard
I tried something this Spring that I had never done before, and I think it is the start of something awesome! My wife and I love sitting on our front porch when the weather is gorgeous (which is about 3 days of each Spring in Chicago) so I decided to hang a little bird feeder in our front yard about 12 feet from our chairs to see what I could attract. I figured why not get some practice in at one of our favorite spots.
We have a small ornamental tree that creeps closer and closer to biting the dust every year, so I decided to hang the feeder in it. While unfortunately the tree is not doing great for itself, it has made for a very excellent bird perch for songbirds! Perches need few leaves, a clear background and a lot of scaly bark with stuff growing on it!
A common house finch. Probably the most common visitor to our perch this year.
Nikon Z6iii • 500mm • f/4 • 1/1000s • ISO 11400
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Cardinals are a species of bird that I have had a hard time photographing. They are very fast, flighty and never seem to stick around more than a few seconds. When I was doing some research, I found out that they overwinter here in Chicago and Winter is actually the best time to photograph them. So, let’s see what happens!
As you can see, the bird feeder in the little tree has provided a lot of fun and some education. Believe it or not, I’m not much of a birder - I just love taking pictures of animals. But, I’m learning more about them this year as I focus more on wildlife.
We also have an arborvitae in our front yard and the birds seem to fly between the perch and the evergreen - probably a much safer place to hang out most of the time.
While the bird feeder was a success for attracting different types of birds, the truth is that it most attracted the neighborhood squirrels. They would sneak up on the perch, steal some food and then fight each other and the birds for territory. Maybe in the fall I will fix that. But they were also fun to photograph.
I also had a few great opportunities to take pictures of our rabbits. I’m sure we have a little (or big!) family of rabbits leaving around our house. This year it seems like they are everywhere and they have lost all fear of predators. They have eaten almost every flower and plant we have planted, killed our blueberry bushes, demolished our peas and won’t bother eating any of actual weeds in our yard.
So, it’s a love-hate relationship at this point, but I really do love watching them hang out and hop around.
Glowing in the golden hour sunlight, this friend-foe hung out with me as I crawled on my belly to get close enough for a frame-filling shot. That's about 20 feet with a 500mm lens.
Nikon Z6iii • 500mm • f/5 • 1/1600s • ISO 900
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Possibly my all-time favorite portrait of a bunny.
Nikon Z6iii • 500mm • f/4 • 1/1250s • ISO 1250
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Just a frame documenting all the things they should be eating but don't.
Nikon Z6iii • 400mm • f/5.6 • 1/400s • ISO 6400
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And finally, my favorite wildlife of all in our front yard. Juneau’s happy place in Spring is sitting in between our tulips just watching people as they walk by.
Juneau in the midst of our tulip patch.
Nikon Z6iii • 500mm • f/4.5 • 1/1600s • ISO 400
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It turns out, I didn’t need to travel far to have a great time this Spring admiring the local wildlife.