I heard the funniest thing today. While walking up the trail to the top of the drumlin at the prairie parcel of Pheasant Branch Conservancy, I overheard a woman say to her friend, "It wasn't like this last weekend. It looks like they've covered the grass with something." I couldn't resist and said, "They covered it with fire!"
I spent most of the afternoon sitting on the shade side of an oak tree, reading and waiting for whatever birds might perch directly in front of me. The first was a Brown-headed Cowbird, and I'm a little embarrassed to say that I actually photographed it. But I'm not sharing it! The shadow of the oak was like an hour hand of a clock, crawling slowly over the ground as the sun moved across the sky. Occasionally I would shift my position so that my camera remained in the shade; it's far easier to digiscope that way. Eventually, as luck and patience would have it, I captured a few nice photographs of a Brown Thrasher and Northern Flicker:
All images © 2010 Mike McDowell