Outdoor Photography Canada

The concept of the nemesis bird is likely a carry-over from the world of bird watching. The desire to simply see a given bird in the wild becomes a self-perpetuating obsession for bird watchers and the same is true for bird photographers. Often times, the pursuit carries on while pragmatic notions are ignored. For instance, maybe this bird is really only as nervous and unapproachable in the photographer’s particular part of the world. Maybe there are many pros and amateurs that have already produced great images of this species. Regardless of these hard facts that one might expect to diminish the desire of the photographer, he/she carries on, spending hours in blinds, pouring over online bird sighting reports and even booking flights to places where the species is more common. This naivete is what fuelled my early forays into bird photography. Would I do it all again for a bird? Probably not. Do I regret having done it, despite the lack of commercial success for most of those nemesis bird images? Certainly not. Here are a few stories about my irrational pursuit of a tiny falcon known as the American kestrel ...

To read more of Scott Linstead's column Warblings, please pick up the October issue of OPC today!