April 2026

Let the practice take flight.

A small bird perched on a leafless tree branch, with a background of blurred branches and sky.

A small bird with gray, white, and black feathers perched on a tree branch among green leaves and brown seed clusters, with autumn-colored foliage in the background.

A small bird with a red beak and orange-brown body perched on a branch among green leaves and catkins.

A silhouetted bird perched on a bare tree branch against a gray, overcast sky.

A red cardinal bird perched on a branch amid green leaves and thin branches in a forest setting.

A red cardinal bird perched on a thin branch among green leaves.

These are the results of my first couple of times going out with the goal of photographing birds. The game of hide and seek you play with the birds, as you are trying to listen and see them flying from tree to tree is addictive. You hear an unfamiliar chirp or a familiar song in the tree, and you know that bird has to be there. They’re singing and communicating as you’re scanning and searching to lay eyes on the bird. If you’re lucky enough to spot the bird and get a good look at it, it’s another challenge to pull up the camera, find the bird, get it focused, and take the picture. Birds are quick and often don’t like staying in the same place for very long. More than just capturing the image, observing the bird’s behavior and personality brings another level of connectedness with nature as you realize each animal has their own unique life. I’m searching for the birds, but I only find myself.

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NEIGHBORHOOD BIRDS PREPARE FOR A STORM

A bird perched on a surface with a background of wooden planks.

A bird perching on a ledge outside a building.

A small bird standing on a ledge with a nut in its beak.

A small bird standing on a ledge with a wooden background.

BOWL & DOILY SPIDER

The bowl and doily spider is one of those things you’ll walk past a hundred times without ever noticing—until you finally do. It builds this really subtle, two-layered web low in the grass or tucked along the edges of shrubs: a small, curved “bowl” on top and a flat, lacy sheet underneath. At first glance, it just looks like a bit of messy silk, but the longer you look, the more intentional it becomes. The design is simple but effective—small insects hit the bowl, lose their footing, and drop straight down into the sheet below.

Most of the time, the spider is hanging upside down beneath that lower layer, almost completely hidden, just waiting for the slightest vibration. The second something lands, it moves fast, precisely, and over in a moment. It’s not big, not flashy, and definitely not something that draws attention to itself, which is probably why so few people ever notice it. But once you do, you start seeing them everywhere, especially in the early morning when dew outlines the web perfectly. It’s one of those quiet details that changes how you look at a patch of grass—proof that there’s a lot more going on out there than most people ever stop to notice.