singing in the rain

Somewhere in the middle of my photo walk started in the previous blog it began to rain. Would I have to go back? And would all birds just leave to dry spots where I wouldn't find them?

At least this robin stayed out, sitting and singing on a metal cage in the yard of some construction business. And if you look closely you can also see the raindrops falling all around it.

A little before that I had seen this woodpecker hard at work. The movement made a very sharp picture difficult. But it graciously took a break so I could snap this photo.

While it was still raining I curved back from the robin photo to the place where I had seen the woodpecker. And fortunately, it stopped raining. Fortunately because I glanced a flurry of blue between the branches above. I had a suspicion. I had seen a bird of its kind in the general area before. So I followed as well as I could. But I only got a dark image with a silhouette and lots of branches. Turns out I was able to reveal the jay in editing by lifting the shadows.

There are way too many branches in front of the bird blocking the view. That's why I'm not giving this picture its own post. Still, this was a very impactful moment for me. I had found and photographed a bird I had perceived for the first time just a few weeks before. Editing had converted something that felt like a failure at first into a success. This experience still impacts how I take photos now in late 2025.