It Was Peaceful!

The Hummer Deck at Rancho Naturlista is paradise! The trees, sky, and air are filled with the sights and sounds of thirty or more bird species of the rainforest. You will hear many of the birders wanting to capture the sounds to take home with them because of the calming tranquillity they instill in the listener. When you have your camera up to your eye, your head is filled with these sounds, making the photography that much sweeter (love the silence of mirrorless!). Then the Red-billed Pigeons thunder into the sky, a clap of wings that is startling, taking to the air with them are the other smaller birds that rely on the pigeons to sound the alarm. You can’t hear the person next to you it’s so loud, let alone the birds that a second before were contentedly feeding. Usually in the quiet, the shy birds appear from the depths of the forest, and just when you get your lens locked onto that small, shy bird, the explosion hits. Every time this happened last week, I would look up and see the Bicolored Hawk just perched there looking innocently. That’s until it spots potential prey, and then off he would fly. It was peaceful!