"A Bird's Eye View" by Amelia Hecsh

This picture is an overall picture of my mom’s birdfeeders in our backyard. We have a small strip of woods between us and our neighbor, and you can see through the trees into her yard in this picture.  My mom has a variety of birdfeeders because she doesn’t replace them all at a time; she gets them as she needs them, which isn’t often.  In the winter, we get a lot of birds and they know whenever we fill the feeders.  We also get squirrels, the big gray ones and they love our birdseed.  In the summer, leaves grow over the birdfeeders and make a shady cover for the birds.  Our birdfeeders feed a lot of different kinds of birds and sometimes squirrels.  In this picture, there aren’t any birds at the feeders, because I just came outside.  Once they get used to me, some of the birds will come back. The birds are also a source of entertainment for our cats, who love to watch the birds fly around, especially the pigeons.  

This picture is a close up of a bird in the lower branches of the trees above the feeders.  When this picture was taken, a group of birds was all talking to each other.  I could hear more birds than I could see and they were all chirping at once.  I think they were all the same kind of bird, because their calls were very similar.  To get this shot I had to zoom in a lot. At the time, this bird was listening to the other birds, but soon after it flew away.  I think these birds are sparrows, and they move very fast and frequently.  I am glad the bird didn’t move while I was taking the picture.  This picture is one of my favorites, because of the shadows in it.  The sun was behind a tree or cloud, so I got the outlines instead of the colors, which I think looks really good in this picture.

I think that this is the most aesthetically interesting because of the shadows/light, and blurry/ sharpness.  This photo has both contrasts, and I think it looks really good.   The outline of the bird is really clear, but the foreground branches are blurred at the edges.  Also, though the trees and the bird were dark, the sky was a light blue.  I think that is more interesting than if the sky was gray.  If this picture were taken at sunset, it would remind me of a Wild West picture, with the silhouette against the sunset.  I think this picture is the most interesting aesthetically because of the contrasts it has.

This picture is partially dark, but with light on half of some of the branches.  The sun was coming from partially behind a tree.  There is enough light that you can see some of the feather patterns.  The sun was coming out from behind the cloud or tree, so there is some light, but not a ton.  This was taken soon after the previous picture, but of a different bird.  The bird is the first thing you see because everything else is thin, but the bird is more solid than everything else.  This was the same type of bird as in the photo above, and is one of several who live around here.  These birds aren’t as afraid of humans as others, and they are the first to come back after being startled.  

This squirrel is one of many who love to raid the birdfeeders.  The birds aren’t scared of the squirrels; they just go to a different feeder than the squirrel. Some of the birds are smaller than the squirrel, so this is pretty brave of them.  We have a few gray squirrels that live around here and it’s funny to watch them run up and down the trees. A few minutes after the picture was taken, this squirrel realized I was watching him and he ran away.  Clearly they aren’t the smartest of creatures.  The feeder he is trying to raid isn’t very heavy, so it is very easy to move, even when full.  Usually the squirrels go for this one though, so it must be easier for them than other ones.  Also, this feeder is towards the back, so it’s easier to make a quick getaway. 

This picture is of a little goldfinch perched in a mass of branches.  The little woods around the birdfeeders are wild, with branches and little grapevines everywhere.  The tangle is great for little birds like this one to hide in.  The birds are very hard to see when they’re of duller colors.  Without the snow, this little finch was almost invisible.  The wing, with the black and white stripes, is what caught my eye instead of the yellow feathers.  After I saw the wing, the rest of the bird seems obvious.  This bird was hopping around a lot from one branch to another, so this was one of the few moments where it was sitting still. 

This picture is of my cat, who loves to watch the birds.  Though he is an indoor cat, and always will be, he likes to pretend he can have all the birds he wants.  Behind the cat, you can see out the window through the screen to see a couple of the birdfeeders.  The birds fly around outside, but the cats get hours of entertainment out of it.  Of my cats, I chose this one to feature in the picture, because he lets me get close enough to take a picture without turning around.  I could walk as close as around six feet before he looked at me.  He watches the birds every day; especially when it’s warm out and the windows are open.  This window has a nice wide sill for him to sit on, and I took some of my photos from it with the screen up.