2024—Feasting on Suet

When I’m photographing birds that are attracted to the area because there are feeders there, my goal is to exclude the feeder from the image so that the birds look as natural as possible in their natural habitat. Sometimes, though, I find the bird’s interaction with the feeder to be charming as in this shot of a Canada Jay carving off bits of frozen suet. The bird’s expression is one of delight at having found sustenance in this cold, frozen place. In Sax-Zim Bog this past January, we took a half mile walk through the snow to a feeding station behind the visitor’s center. There were few birds there but a Canada Jay entertained us for a few minutes as it hung from a suet feeder. The feeder itself, with twisted wire closures, shows the efforts of the Sax-Zim Bog volunteers to keep the Red Squirrels from devouring the suet meant for birds.

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