"Sometimes the Smallest Things Take Up the Most Room in Your Heart"

A Short Vacation Post

It’s my birthday today, and to celebrate, my husband and I are finally taking that trip to Italy that we had to cancel last spring when our dog got sick.¹ (I wrote about what I learned from our thwarted trip here.) This week my cousin Chris Aagaard, who takes absolutely delightful wildlife photos, is graciously allowing me to post a few of her photos for your enjoyment. Thank you, Chris! And see you all next week!

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Chris takes photos of the tiny beauties—birds, flowers, insects—she sees in her garden and around her neighborhood. I asked her what she enjoys most about taking nature photos:

It’s definitely seeking, finding, and the challenges. Nature is always full of surprises. I go out looking for, let’s say, wood ducks in the river, and a belted kingfisher shows up flying up to a tree right by me. Surprise!!

Below is a lovely example of this serendipity. “This little male hummingbird was so tired from chasing other hummers around he had to lie down on a tree limb”:

I asked Chris how she manages to get such close-up photos, and whether she has had any special training in photography:

I try to be close enough to my nature subjects but not enough to bother them. I have updated many cameras and lenses through the years. Technology has played a part in the improvements of photography itself. Right now I own a Canon 90d camera with a Canon 100-400mm F/4.5-5.6 L telephoto lens with a Canon Extender EF 1.4 lll. for long shots.

I am a self-taught photographer, but there are several things that have helped me through the years. My husband and I live in a wildlife setting with 22.5 acres of land and some river frontage. The river itself brings in many forms of wildlife opportunities. I have watched YouTube to help me with the wildlife settings. It also helps to have friends who are interested in photography, who can help with their knowledge and experience.

Chris took the photo below in early June. “Five monarch caterpillars on my butterflyweed plant in my garden. The female monarch was very busy this springtime laying eggs”:

I asked Chris about her gardens:

I have planted many gardens here on our homestead of thirty-one years. I started out with many different kind of hostas and not many flowers. But throughout the years, I have always gone over to my sister Debbie’s house in spring and summer to look at her beautiful flower gardens. She is a Master Gardener, and I got many ideas from her. I also wanted flowers in my gardens but had to dig up many hostas to do so. It was a very large project to accomplish, but after many years I turned almost all of my gardens into flower gardens. All of the flowers are to bring in butterflies and pollinators. Plant what they want and they will come! I have taken many photos of different kinds of butterflies, skippers, and anything else that comes into my gardens.

Later this summer, Chris was able to photograph the adult monarchs:

Other butterflies come too, including “The great spangled butterfly on my butterfly bush flowers in my garden”:

In September, Chris posted the photo below in the Minnesota Naturalists Facebook group with the following caption: “I have seen more grasshoppers this year than in the past several years. This grasshopper was on my Autumn Joy Sedum plant.”

Finally, I asked Chris if there was anything she has discovered about nature photography, or about birds or insects, that most people might not know:

I have a passion for nature photography. I believe that if you can see nature, it will open up a new world for you. For several years now I have observed and photographed many different kinds of ducks and other birds. In the spring the male ducks and some other birds have courtship behaviors that most people would not know about. The male and female sandhill cranes both perform a courtship dance. The male goldeneye duck throws his head back and kicks his leg to splash as much water as he can to impress his lady friend. The male cardinal will feed his female in courtship. A cedar waxwing will do the same for his female in spring. These are just a few things that I have learned and observed through my passion for nature and photography.

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How about you, readers? Aren’t Chris’s photos beautiful? I hope they brightened your day as much as they do mine! What is something you do to add beauty to the world? Please share your thoughts in the comments!

The Tidbit

My favorite photo by Chris is the one below, which she took in the spring of 2022, of a dispute between male wood ducks:

Which reminds me of a terrific joke about a duck that my daughter, Casey, told me:

A duck walks into a bar and orders a beer. “Whoa!” says the bartender. “A talking duck!”

“Yeah, yeah,” says the duck. “Can you just pour me a beer?”

“How are you going to pay?” asks the bartender.

“Oh, I have money. I work as a plasterer at the construction site around the corner.” The duck pulls a wallet out from under his wing and gives it to the bartender. The bartender sees that the duck has an ID and plenty of money, so he pours him a beer.

The duck comes back the next day, and the next, and pretty soon he’s a regular.

One day, the circus comes to town. When the duck comes in for his beer, the bartender says, “You know, the circus is here. You should really see if you can get a job with them.”

The duck thinks for a minute. “You mean, the place with the big drafty tent? And all the people live in trailers and the animals are in cages?”

“Yeah . . .” says the bartender.

“Why the heck would they need a plasterer?” asks the duck.

1. I am superstitious enough to worry that the mere fact of taking this trip will make our dog sick again. Foolish, I know—but please stay healthy, Lynn!

For lack of a better place to put the citation, the source for the quote in the title—according to the internet, anyway—is Winnie-the-Pooh. Then again, who knows? There are myriad spurious attributions of quotations to Winnie-the-Pooh out there; the amusing site Pooh Misquoted documents a number of them.