Swan Song Photography

06/29/2026

Gull missing a foot. Who knows what happened, could have been a predator, fishing line, or maybe some sort of illness. It didn't look fresh, so I think this gull will be okay.

06/28/2026

The best birds always show up when you least expect them!

I work at a nonprofit and we had a golf outing fundraiser last week. I brought my camera to practice taking pictures of people/sports. This redheaded woodpecker landed no more than ten feet from our golf cart and just stayed there! Meanwhile, in the parks and wildlife preserves, it feels like they won't let you within a quarter mile of them.

06/22/2026

What's your favorite 🟡 bird?

A couple shots from spring migration up to a week ago.

In order: American goldfinch, Wilson's Warbler, yellow warbler, prothonotary warbler, then another American goldfinch.

06/18/2026

Tons of variety at the Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve this week! Baby bunnies are out in full force, yellow warblers are getting territorial, and there's goofy little fledglings! Will add species names to each picture later today.

Besides the diversity of wildlife, the other great thing about that park is how friendly people are. I met two ladies there this time, a local NE Ohio resident and her friend from Georgia. We decided to walk together and I got to play tour guide for a bit! I talked about habitat, IDing species by call and field marks, and other bird facts until I was hoarse! Maybe when I retire I'll volunteer to lead bird walks.

06/16/2026

Meet Chicago's superstar shorebird, Imani the piping plover. Imani is the first piping plover to hatch in Chicago in over 60 years. His parents, the late Monty and Rose, began nesting at the Montrose dunes after nearly two decades of habitat restoration efforts.

This summer, there are 90 pairs of piping plovers in the great lakes. That doesn't sound like a lot, but this is a huge jump from 13 in the late 80's.

Shot 6.14.26

Chicago Piping Plovers

03/26/2026

A house finch missing a chunk of his beak at my feeder.

I'm sure it's not fun, but he actually gets by fine. I took this picture over a month ago, and I still see him a couple times a week. Sometimes he even scares the other males.

I've taken to calling him "messed up beak guy," "broken beak guy," and another "_____ beak guy" variation that I can't say on Facebook.

03/24/2026

Not the best picture I've ever taken of a duck, but definitely the best duck I've ever taken a picture of.

Hooded Merganser from a couple weeks ago.

03/23/2026

I won't be sad when we're officially safe from snow and sub-40 temps, but I guess winter wasn't all bad.

Taken around various areas in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

03/22/2026

Black swans (domestic) at Chestnut Hill Memorial Park's pond.

01/21/2026

😂

When Roanoke, VA resident Ken Brindle, 66, first began birdwatching three decades ago, he thought he was off to a hot start after seeing a chicken the very same afternoon he bought a birdwatching journal. Devastatingly for Ken, his birdwatching career has not progressed whatsoever beyond logging that chicken, as he has not seen a single bird ever since, despite making birdwatching the basis of his entire personality and sinking thousands of dollars into high-end birding binoculars over the years. Whereas every other member of Ken’s local birding club has logged dozens, if not hundreds, of different bird species, the fact remains that while Ken has been birdwatching longer than all other members by a wide margin, his logbook is completely blank aside from the entry ‘Chicken, 1/10/1996’ on page one.

Ken has found himself on one of the worst, if not the worst, cold streaks in birding history. For 30 years, each and every time Ken thought he’d finally seen a second bird, it turned out to be a false alarm. Take his trip to Everglades National Park, one of the world’s best birdwatching locations, for example: After six hours of searching, Ken turned his binoculars on what he was initially convinced was a flamingo, but upon closer inspection turned out to be a waterlogged human co**se.

Gosh. It just doesn’t get more heartbreaking than that.

Fortunately for Ken, he just retired at the end of last year, meaning he now has more time than ever to dedicate to birding, and hopefully seeing at least one other bird than a chicken. He’ll even get to do so with his eight-year-old granddaughter Julia, who was recently inspired by her grandfather to take up birdwatching, and logged over 10 different kinds of birds just last weekend. When Julia related this news to her grandfather over the phone, Ken reportedly hung up without responding and locked himself in his room, where he remains as of this article’s publication.

Our heart goes out to Ken. Keep your fingers that he sees another chicken at the very least, otherwise he can chalk up the 30 years he’s devoted to birdwatching as a massive, soul-crushing failure.