Thanks to Mary Montgomery
David B. Williams
My good friend Andy Nettell has what I call the intention to attention. By this I mean that he goes outside seeking to be a good observer. He does this not only by reading up on the natural history of his chosen homeplace, Sequim, Washington, but also by carrying a camera with him. “Taking the camera with me has rekindled my sense of wonder. I know that this is an overused phrase, but it perfectly describes the practice of observing the natural world.”
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I have known Andy for more than 35 years; we worked together as park rangers at Arches National Park in the early 1990s. He was always a good naturalist and good observer. He was also one of those classic park rangers who was great at sharing his knowledge with visitors and fellow staff members; for several years I had the good fortune of teaching natural history with him to new rangers and was impressed by what he knew and what he had seen.
But then he opened a bookstore. It allowed him to indulge his passion for antiquarian books and in building a community of people equally excited about the written word. Managing the store though took him away from his true love, being outdoors. Not that he was fully aware of this, until he sold the store a few years ago. “I hadn’t realized what I had lost being in the world of books,” he told me recently. “When I began to take pictures of birds again, though, I reawakened an entire world.”
We were talking about his work the other day, when my wife and I visited Andy and his wife. I had long been impressed with the bird photographs that he has been posting on Facebook and was curious about his process. I knew that he was a good birder, but he said that photography had taken him to a new level. He realized that if he wanted to get good photographs, he had to be intentional. “I had to learn about their behavior. I had to know where the birds would be and to plan ahead. I had to go out and watch and be patient.” In other words, Andy had to have the intention to paying attention to the natural world.
He illustrated this by describing a recent encounter he had had with Northern Harriers. Long known as Marsh Hawks, harriers are birds of the flats, floating gracefully over fields and meadows while scanning for critters such as mice and voles. Near Andy’s house is such an area, where he had seen harriers before. One time he had watched an adult male and female courting. The male had caught a mouse and, as part of his courtship, had presented it to the female on the wing. She then glided in for the love offering, which she nabbed in her talons.
Andy told me he had witnessed the prey transfer previously, which typically involved watching the birds for one to two hours. Getting these photos required patience, watching, listening for the birds’ calls, and a bit of luck.
Over the next several months, Andy continued to go back to the meadow, to watch harriers. The week before we arrived, he had seen four young birds. “They had none of the classic adult harrier behavior. Instead, they were perching and crying to each other and occasionally taking off and wheeling around. It looked as if they were learning what the wind could do.” At some point, an adult female flew in from the east. She called and within a second the four youngsters headed her way. She was about thirty feet off the ground. “I didn’t realize she had a mouse in her talons until she dropped it mid-flight. One of the kids tried for the mouse with his or her mouth and completely flubbed it,” Andy told me. All four young birds then dove to ground in search of the meal.
Young harrier trying to catch mouse with mouth instead of talons, as adults do it. Unlike with the adults, Andy did not know of this prey-transfer between generations so it was a pleasant to surprise when he saw it. Photo by Andy Nettell
For Andy, moments such as this are not really about the photographs. Yes, he loves to “nail the shot,” to come up with a wonderful image of what he has seen, but it’s more about the time outside, to being witness to the natural world. The camera is merely the instrument that provides a reason—not that he truly needs one—to go out and observe. His observations are a two way street. He has found that paying attention to the birds so carefully supplements what he has read and brings the birds more to life, which leads to better photographs.
Photography has also rekindled his concerns about birds and the perils they face. How do his actions impact birds? How can he work to benefit them? “Watching and documenting birds through photography has heightened my awareness of habitat loss and I have become passionate about doing what I can to preserve habitats whether it is supporting the local land trust, volunteering for citizen-scientist work or planting our yard to create habitat for birds, pollinators, butterflies, etc.”
As I noted, so many of Andy’s bird photographs are amazing. They were clearly taken by someone with a passion for birds and a gift for photography, but now I know that they were something more. They were illustrating the importance of getting outside, of paying attention, and of knowing the natural history. They were the product of his passion. They were the art of the intention to attention.
On Monday, July 20, NASA featured a splendid photo of my fair city, Seattle, for their Image of the Day. Pretty fun to see Seattle from space. Part of what stands out to me is the amount of green. I feel fortunate to live in a city with so many trees and park spaces.