Preview 2 - American Tree Sparrow

Make it stand out

I’ll be posting a few preliminary annotated images leading up to our official kick-off of January 1. This is a brand new platform for me. I have tackled two previous “Project 365”s wherein I make the attempt to post a new image(s) each day for a full year. The first two years were somewhat rudimentary and I’ve decided to raise the bar by using Squarespace as my new platform. A bit of a new learning curve which I’m sure will be worth the effort.

So without further ado, Our first image of Natdigital 2025 is actually a shot from November 2, 2024, the American Tree Sparrow. This one of our “winter birds” here in the Hudson Valley of New York, more or less replacing the smaller but otherwise very similar Chipping sparrow found in Spring.

This little guy was found along Lynch Avenue, a dirt road in the “Black Dirt” agricultural area of Orange County

*Photo Tech Tip - CONTEXT - The first tip of the new blog is a fairly simple and straight-forward concept. A photograph of your subject will always be more pleasing to the viewer when it is placed in a natural surrounding. Sometimes, you simply can’t find a bird you wish to capture digitally except when it is feeding at your home feeder. Ideally, however, you should make every effort to capture the moment when the subject is in its natural setting…..hence here our sparrow is seen perched in a bramble along the roadside.