BIRD WHISPERER OF TUALATIN NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE

Try and count the times you’ve learned something new only to find it something as old as time. And you didn’t learn anything new at all except for being wrong about what you thought you knew. Like birds.

 

A bird whisperer visited the wildlife sanctuary just past the junkyard on Highway 99 before Sherwood on Saturday. I like birds but I wasn’t there seeking forgiveness after Thanksgiving.

 

I was there to the share the same place as a ton of birds. They could all be ducks or geese, swans or any flock of a feather, it didn’t matter as long as the birds and I enjoyed each others company.

 

 

The only shooting I planned on doing at the refuge would come from my Nikon D 3400. That’s when I noticed the bird whisperer with the same camera. Click the pic below and look for the bald eagle on the top left branch.

 

She knew the birds and they knew her. They posed for her when she whispered. She had the most incredible bird images on her camera this side of Audubon. They all seemed to pose for her.

 

They must have posed because I’ve never shot a bird pic as beautiful as her worst shots. We had the same camera but not the same eye. It made me want to collect a great bird shot that day and I had a blue heron in my sights.

 

It stood still on an island in a flooded field. I wanted that blue heron, wanted it bad after a cruise with the bird whisperer through her magical images. When Big Blue started moving I was ready.

 

 

The bird took to wing. I took my shot and missed. Bird whispered took her shot. It’s what you see in the header. She nailed it. Mine, not so much.

 

 

I asked if I could publish her shot on boomerpdx. She sent it over then took the trail down to the flatland while wife and I went home. By the time we arrived, bird whisperer had sent a text saying she found the heron’s landing place. Was I shocked? No. It probably texted her where it was.

 

What did surprise me is the heron in the top photo didn’t turn its head and smile and wave for a true fan.

 

 

Science explains how birds evolved from dinosaurs, but it doesn’t explain the connection a bird whisperer or dog whisperer or horse whisperer has with their critters of choice. But you can feel it when you’re around them.

 

What sort of whisperer have you met?