In matching one’s ability as a hunter against the timidity and cunning of a bird, relations are established between the photographer and his subject which of necessity result in their becoming intimately associated.
17. Wood Thrush on nest.
Doubtless we shall never know just what birds think of the peculiar antics in which the camera enthusiast sometimes indulges, but certain it is that an attempt to photograph some of the most familiar and presumably best-known birds will open the photographer’s eyes to facts in their life histories of which he was previously in utter ignorance.
As a known and fixed point to which the bird may be expected to return, the nest offers the best opportunity to the bird photographer, and photographs of adult birds on or at their nests are more common than those taken under other conditions.[17], [18]
18. Chestnut-sided Warbler on nest.
Birds vary greatly in their attitude toward a camera which has been erected near their homes; some species paying little attention to it, and, after a short time, coming and going as though it had always been there, while others are suspicious of any object which changes the appearance of their surroundings.
With the latter special precautions are necessary, and unusual care should be taken in working about their nests lest they be made to desert it. The long-focus lens is here of great service, for it enables one to secure a sufficiently large image from a distance of ten or twelve feet. Even then it will often be necessary to conceal or disguise the camera by covering it with the green dark-cloth, vines, and leaves. A rubber tube or thread of requisite length is then attached and the exposure is made from a distance.
A dummy camera, composed of a box or log wrapped in a green cloth and placed on a tripod made from saplings, may sometimes be erected to advantage several days before one expects to attempt to photograph the bird, who in the meantime becomes accustomed to it and quickly returns to the nest after the real camera has been substituted.