Sunday morning on the Sula-Richards Farm: and, as usual, Joni and I went down to Turtle Pond and sat in the bird blind which I had set up the evening before. There were a lot of songbirds around--mockingbirds, cardinals, woodpeckers, sparrows, waxwings, robins--but few came close enough to the bird blind to photograph. This phoebe was the only bird I managed to photograph from the blind that morning.

The Eastern Phoebe is one of my favorite birds. It is quite animated with its tail moving up and down as it perches, watching for insects. When it sees an insect, it darts out acrobatically, grabs the bug, and then returns gracefully to a perch, often the very same spot.

It has a pleasing pastel color, neither gaudy nor drab.