Bird counts offer great ops for shutterbugs

Above, This Kentucky Cardinal was out early looking for that proverbial worm the “early bird” gets.
— Tom Wortham Photo

While on a recent cold wet Saturday, birders gathered at the Land Between the Lakes Nature Station to spend part of the day in the Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count, other bird photography enthusiasts are making plans for the Great Backyard Bird Count, Feb. 12-15.
True photography hobbyists spend a part of nearly every day, working at not only identification tactics, but also ways to take photographs while still registering counts for activities such as the Audubon events.
One such photographer is Tom Wortham, retired pharmacist from Madisonville, who has been known to chase the sunlight from dawn to dusk in order to capture the most colorful, elusive feathered creature in its most natural habitat, even if he has to create it.
While it’s not surprising to find Wortham in any bird habitat, as the sun rises, his favorite area has been created from an old wooden stool, upon which he has placed two old, weathered boards.
He then found a 30-inch long, black locust tree limb, which he placed on top of the boards. He keeps bird seed on the boards and log, constantly. He describes his feeder as a “contraption” that is about 20 feet out in the yard, directly in front of the windows of his computer room. “That way”, he said, “I can sit at the computer and watch the activity at the bird feeding station.”
Not to be outdone by the weather, Wortham said, “I have taken the storm window sections out of one of the two windows and keep the bottom sash up while I am here in the room. I keep my camera and 300 mm lens on a tripod, just inside the open window, as I refuse to shoot through even one layer of glass.
“If I’m not on the computer,” Wortham said. “I’m sitting here, going through pictures I’ve shot, but can’t concentrate, for watching all the birds on that log/board feeding device. I really need a larger feeding area. At one time, there were nuthatches, a purple finch, a male cardinal, two English sparrows and one little chickadee, all on that board!
“Then the king —the woodpecker decided he wanted to eat,” he said. “When he arrived, everybody scattered.”
In the coming weeks, prior to the Great Backyard Bird Count, perhaps Herald readers can share their tips about how to attract birds to their yards for not only feeding, but also counting and photographing. One can find beauty in the lakes area during the soft, quiet winter days and photographing visitors to the backyard can be a beauty shared with everyone.
Prior to the turn of the 19th century, people engaged in a holiday tradition known as the Christmas “Side Hunt.” They would choose sides and go afield with their guns; whoever brought in the biggest pile of feathered (and furred) quarry won.
Conservation was in its beginning stages around the turn of the 20th century, and many observers and scientists were becoming concerned about declining bird populations. Beginning on Christmas Day 1900, ornithologist Frank Chapman, an early officer in the then budding Audubon Society, proposed a new holiday tradition — a Christmas Bird Census — that would count birds in the holidays rather than hunt them.
So began the Christmas Bird Count. Thanks to the inspiration of Frank M. Chapman and the enthusiasm of 27 dedicated birders, 25 Christmas Bird Counts were held that day. The locations ranged from Toronto, Ontario to Pacific Grove, Calif. with most counts in or near the population centers of northeastern North America. Those original Christmas bird counters tallied 90 species on all the counts combined.
Official Christmas Bird Counts, from the local areas, will be published, as soon as those numbers are made available.
The Hopkinsville Christmas Bird Count is Jan. 2, and registration information may be found by contacting James D. Chiles 522-3169 or e-mail: JDChiles@mchsi.com.