Homemade cranberry sauce made a wonderful complement to the turkey at the Christmas Day feast that I shared with the other two members of my “pod.” Many birds are also feasting on berries at this time of the year, though I cannot recommend that you taste the poison ivy berries that they are consuming.
Last week I spotted this White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge and watched as it picked berries one by one from a cluster of poison ivy and consumed them in place. Most of us do not like to have our photos taken while we are eating, but this pretty little sparrow was so focused on its feast that it did not seem to mind.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Bird with food in them will make the photo interesting. At the same time, that will tell us their habitat and many other info. But totally agree with you that I don’t like my photo to be taken while eating. Now I am in dilemma.
Great photo, Mike. I know I say that a lot, but…
Thanks, Dan. This particular shot is one of my recent favorites for both artistic and technical reasons. As I have mentioned before, one of my highest goals is to get extraordinary shots of common subjects and this rates pretty high on that scale.
Nice shot with neat catchlight, Mike. The similar colors of the background would make this a challenging jigsaw puzzle. 🙂
Thanks, Eliza. The complicated background that would make a challenging jigsaw puzzle also made it tough for me to locate and track the bird. As you can probably imagine, I take a lot of shots and this one is a recent favorite, Eliza.
Nice work obtaining an excellent photograph with that background, Mike!
We, also, enjoyed fresh cranberry sauce this year and Gini added them to her cornbread dressing (along with fresh herbs, bacon and apples) to accompany a sumptuous turkey feast.
Wishing you all the best over the remainder of this year and may our New Year be filled with Hope and Peace.
Thanks, Wally. I grew up with cranberry sauce in the shape of a can (despite living in Massachusetts, where a lot of cranberries are grown), so it is a treat to have fresh cranberry sauce. That cornbread stuffing sounds amazing. Thanks so much for the New Year’s wishes. I am cautiously optimistic and hopeful that this new year will be a brighter one in so many ways.
Most likely spreading more poison ivies.. Nice shot, Mike.
Thanks, Steve. Yeah, that is nature’s way for propagating many plant species, even those we may not like. 🙂
Nice image Mike! Enjoyed seeing it!
Too bad the lovely bird will poo out poison ivy seeds to spread the plant!
Yes, birds help to disperse all kinds of seeds, the bad ones as well as the good ones. Still, it is beneficial that the poison ivy provides nourishment to the little birds at a time when it is hard for them to find food.