Swan Song Photography

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.

01/14/2026

Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve is really good for birding (see yesterday's bald eagle post), but it's also my favorite place to see deer! There must be a sizeable herd living there, because I see them at least a third of the times I visit. On three separate occasions in the past four months, I got to see bucks locking antlers, though I was only able to get it on camera once. A post for another day.

Deer are really fun to photograph; you get a good mix of silly and graceful shots. You can probably guess which one of these is my favorite if you've seen my great blue heron posts.

01/13/2026

This is the closest I've ever gotten to a bald eagle, couldn't have been more than ten yards (from what I remember, I haven't been on a football field in almost 2 years.) For the other photographers, I only have a 75-300mm lens, and not all of these were taken at 300.

I remember what one of the local Audubon Society leaders told me about bald eagles. They get a lot of calls from older folks asking, did I seriously just see a bald eagle? Because they used to be rare and almost went extinct. As in, in 1963, there were only 417 nesting pairs in the lower 48. We almost lost them! As of the last official count in 2020, there are well over 70,000 now.

I remember when I first got into birding, I was on a walk with Audubon Society of Greater Cleveland and the leader just casually mentioned you can see eagles on the trail we were on, like it was no big deal. I always thought of bald eagles as something you only saw at the zoo, so it blew my mind that I could find them in the wild. I had to try out this "eBird" thing and find myself a bald eagle. The last photo is my first ever bald eagle sighting/picture 11 months ago, before I had a camera. Taken by holding my phone up to my binoculars.

Anyway. Bald eagles are dope. Getting close to one is a religious experience. I took a video of this guy too, may or may not post it sometime this week.

01/09/2026

Temple of Tolerance, Wapakoneta. One of my favorite places in the entire state. Hidden in an unassuming small-town neighborhood, behind one house is a collection of art that spans the area of a city block. It's full of poetry, statues, memorials, history, and dozens of places to sit and take it all in. There are so many small details, you discover something new every time you go. I usually spend at least two hours here whenever I get the chance to go.

The temple was built by the late Jim Bowsher. Back when I was a news reporter on that side of the state, I wrote this article about his passing: https://www.hometownstations.com/news/remembering-temple-of-tolerance-creator-and-renowned-story-teller-jim-bowsher/article_e360157e-2c38-11ef-9689-1f4a58315b03.html

Ever since I was a kid and started visiting the temple, I had always wanted to meet Jim, but I never had the chance. I heard he was kind, extremely intelligent, and a fantastic storyteller. But I'm grateful that people are keeping his legacy alive and open to the public.

01/08/2026

Other interesting waterfowl from Chestnut Hill Memorial Park's pond. I especially like the mallard hybrid that looks like he has a brown hairdo. I wonder what species his other parent was?

01/07/2026

My photo walks keep getting shorter and shorter, and this is why. I used to just take a couple pictures of a bird, then move on to find more birds to take pictures of. But if you stick around, you'll eventually see something actually happening, like these mallards fighting. Or maybe fighting isn't the right word. More like, one duck bullying the other one. It probably has something to do with a hen. Drakes will be drakes.

I also waited around long enough to figure out how to tell when one is about to stand tall and spread its wings. Right before they do it, they splash water onto their back with their head. It also helped that there were dozens (maybe 100?) mallards around.

Taken at Chestnut Hill Memorial Park.

01/06/2026

There's a pond at Chestnut Hill Memorial Park, and that pond has maybe a hundred waterfowl, including these two black swans. They're really used to getting fed by people, so they swam right up to the fence I was taking pictures through and made this call like they were begging. Sorry guys! I'd have brought corn if I knew! (Don't feed them bread or processed human snacks if you decide to visit.)

I think it's really sweet to have such pretty birds in a cemetery. I bet a lot of people find comfort and peace sitting on the benches watching the swans, geese, and ducks in the pond. I'll share photos of the others too.

01/05/2026

Happy National Bird Day to everyone except my boyfriend who saw an owl and will be annoyingly proud of it for days.

It's almost like people who don't bird are a magnet for the cool birds. 💔