Even though they are ground feeding and ground nesting birds, most images one sees of Meadowlarks are of a male perched up and singing during the mating season. They actually sing all year, but outside the mating season, they usually just sing from the ground, making them incredibly hard to spot. I was lucky last week to find a couple of flocks of them feeding on a raised berm at a wildlife refuge and just slightly below window level for my car. For some reason, perhaps the high winds at the time, they didn’t seem to be too skittish. IN this case, I liked the busy background because it does such a good job of showing this bird’s normal habitat. I did clone out a few particularly annoying grass stems.
7DII, Sigma 150-600 C @ 435 mm, beanbag on car window, f/8, 1/2000, iso 640, manual exposure, processed in LR & PS CC. Cropped to 2855x3331 before resizing. Taken February 4th at 11:02 am under hazy skies.
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Dennis: I’m not a bird guy but this is excellent. I think you handled the environment really well and I’m glad there wasn’t a bunch of grass obscuring more of the bird. >=))>
The clarity, colors and composition are beautiful. For me, the grass in the background helps place the bird in his environment. Wonderful capture Dennis.
In my experience, it is rare that a meadowlark poses for more than a nano second and usually on a fence post. This is one of the best images of a meadowlark that I have seen. Excellent.
Dennis, this is a nice look at a Meadowlark. I like the grass as a background. Like Linda said, it shows him in his environment. I was sure hoping some would pose for me this year, because I fee more prepared than previous years, but they haven’t so far, and usually they are here by now. They are such beautiful birds. Wonderful details in the feathers, and I love his head pose for you.
Excellent capture of the bird, Dennis, with the bg suiting the theme very well, but, above all, showing that glimpse of habitat which is so nice to see.
This is a great capture of this Meadowlark, Dennis! I like the brown grass background because it shows the bird’s natural habitat and why it’s colored like it is. The detail in the large version is excellent also, especialy for a crop!
