After a highly productive day of finding and photographing a variety of birds, I stopped in at a prairie relict near Castalia, in Erie County. A Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) has been hanging in the vicinity, and I missed seeing the bird at the usual haunts - the only real miss that I had on this day. Anyway, I figured I'd get out on foot for a while, see what I could see, and hope that the big eagle might pass over. One usually sees far more on foot than in a vehicle.
At one point, a bunch of American Robins (Turdus migratorius) flew into a nearby Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides). They were mostly quiet, only giving whisper calls amongst each other. I figured they had a target and a plan, and sure enough a little way over was a fine grove of Smooth Sumac (Rhus glabra) with plenty of fruit.
An American Robin feasts on sumac fruit. Many of his compadres joined him.
This situation was a photographic goldmine, especially to me because of my long-going effort to document animals feeding on or otherwise using native flora. The problem was that I was exactly on the wrong side of the light - looking straight into the late day sun. Fortunately, I had my lightweight Canon R5 and 400 DO II (with 1.4x extender) in hand. Eventually I was able to work around the sumac colony and get the light behind me, without spooking the birds. Moving through the prairie vegetation with a bigger rig and cumbersome tripod would have made it much harder to move stealthily and not spook the birds.
The waxwings - there were only a few - would stage on a bare shrub to look about before dropping into the sumac. I missed shooting the first few birds, but not this one. The animal posed stunningly for a second or two, glancing over its shoulder, crest erect, and wings and tail splayed slightly to reveal their colorful charms.
PHOTOGRAPHIC NOTE: When the light is abundant, as it was here, I prefer to stop down to f/8 or even f/11 if possible. I almost always shoot birds in manual mode, with the ISO on auto. I watch the ISO like a hawk, and it can largely drive what aperture and shutter speed that I use. In a perfect world (for me) the ISO is no higher than 500-800. Low ISOs mean less noisy images, especially if much cropping is necessary. Cameras are getting better at processing higher ISO settings, but I still do what I can to keep them as low as possible. Anyway, the settings for this shot were: f/8, 1/1000, ISO 320, with 0.3+ EV. In hindsight I probably would have stopped down to f/9 or f/10 and dropped the shutter speed to 1/640 or so but I'm nitpicking my efforts.
If you are looking for good bird photography opportunities, stake out a sumac stand in winter. With some patience (and quietness) you'll almost certainly be rewarded with interesting opportunities of birds interacting with these showy native treelets.