Robin Of The Fall

They've come back, even though they never really left. American Robins were the very first bird I was ever able to get a good picture of. I have had many pictures of them since then, and they are now one of the first I was able to capture with my zoom lense.

There had been a time for awhile last summer when I would find hundreds of these birds foraging the forest floor. Many times when I thought I heard a squirrel playing around under some old leaves it turned out to be a robin or several of them. I would turn to get a picture of them in the dark forest, and they would either fly away or the picture would come out blurry.

I was having that problem with them for quite some time. It was just that they were in the forest and the lighting was too dark for the camera to get a good shot of any moving things. If I had a still shot the camera would focus easily, but if anything at all was moving the camera would only get a blur because the movement in the dark was confusing it. I'm still trying to work that problem out.

Now with the coming of fall the lighting is again changing, and so are the habits of all of the animals, especially the birds. Some of the summer birds have gone south to warmer climates. And some are eating as much food as they can so they can fatten up in preparation for a long winter. These last will stay here through the winter.

Robins are of the latter group. I'll be seeing them here all winter long, and I hope to get even better pictures of them than ever before. These that I have for you today are maybe the best so far. They are at least the closest shots I have, and with the zoom lense I didn't have to work so hard to move in closer. This is exactly what I bought it for.

I found these robins in the meadow where I see many of the other birds I find. I'm hoping to be able to identify many more birds now, and it's only a matter of time and patience. Maybe there will be more robins around, but there will be others. Today it's robins, tomorrow it's the world!