In One Ear: A flash of feathers

Published 12:15 am Thursday, November 12, 2020

Steve Forrester spotted Morgan Heim‘s photography, which was featured in the fall 2020 issue of Audubon magazine, right as you open the cover (shown). She is pictured, inset.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has provided wildlife photographers with the opportunity to view nature through a new lens — one aimed intensively at their own homes,” the magazine’s editors wrote. “We asked three professionals across the country to document the bird life around them during their stay-at-home orders.”

“My email used to be the first thing I checked in the morning,” the wildlife photojournalist and filmmaker wrote in the text accompanying the photos. “Now it’s my window.

“My house in Astoria, Oregon, has become a multi-tiered blind through which to spy on my avian neighbors. I developed strategies for opening windows, created little viewing stations, and refined the exact way to tip toe up to the window when I see a flash of feathers.

“I have been so surprised by the variety of birds that come to my little corner … black-headed grosbeak (top), Eurasian collared dove (bottom) … (and) my beloved California scrub-jays (left).

“… I always knew there was a lot of activity in my backyard, but had seen more like background music while I was busy looking elsewhere. Now I realize it is the show.”