First Efforts at Bird Photography 



89 



CHICKADEE LEAVING ITS NEST TO FORAGE FOR A 

 FAMILY OF EIGHT 



friend saw the Chickadees 

 begin the hole. On April 

 26, the hole was six inches 

 deep ! The birds had dug 

 through fourteen inches 

 of wood to make their 

 home! 



On May 2 the nest 

 was finished, and on May 

 9 there were eight eggs 

 in the little bit of a hole 

 that could hardly hold 

 the mother bird. 



May 23, I took my 

 camera with me to the 

 nest. I expected that the 

 young birds would be out 



by that time, and that the old birds would be flying in and out with food, 



giving me many opportunities for photography. I looked in the nest and saw 



that every egg was hatched, so I proceeded to set my camera about two feet 



away, when who should appear on the ground-glass but one of the parents, 



with a mouth full of strug- 

 gling little green caterpillars. 



She, if it were the female, 



looked at the camera a second 



or two, then, without another 



thought of the outside world, 



hopped down into the nest 



and fed her young. 



The camera arranged, I 



was just about to seek con- 

 cealment behind a bush, when 



both of the parent birds flew 



near the nest with food. I 



stood very still. One of the 



birds, the male, I think, 



stopped too, but the other 



one flew right into the nest. 



She soon came out, and stood 



on the very point I had the 



camera focused. Very slowly 



I put my hand up to the 



shutter-release, expecting the 



CHIPPING SPARROW APPROACHING ITS NEST 



