What’s better than picking up a new hobby? Picking up two new hobbies at once! That’s exactly what I did recently picking up photography and bird watching. So what came first? Well, I first bought a camera. I have always wanted a professional camera, but the price has always deterred me from making the leap into a nice camera. When evaluating what camera to buy, I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of options available on the market. Thankfully my local camera store, Bozeman Camera was there to help me along the way. Their staff was extremely helpful, great at listening to my needs, and set me up with a slightly above entry-level Nikon DSLR. The D5600 model that I chose came with two lenses to help get me started on my photography journey. One 18-55mm lens for landscape photography and a 70-300mm telephonic lens for wildlife photography. Both of these lenses have their purpose and I’m so happy I decided to get the two lens kit when I purchased my camera. Thanks Bozeman Camera!

So once I got my camera I was eager to start taking some pictures with it. A friend recommended an upcoming bird watching tour and I thought it was a great idea to test out my camera skills. I wasn’t expecting to really enjoy the bird watching as much as I did, but I was completely blown away with how much fun bird watching is. We were fortunate to have two fantastic guides from the Sacajawea Audubon Society that were very kind, informative, and gave a wonderful tour around the Story Mill Community Park. We saw so many different varieties of birds and I wasn’t able to take pictures of all of them, but I got as many pictures as I could. Below is a gallery of the birds I photographed. The highlight of the entire tour was seeing a snipe and getting a really good look at the Wilson’s Snipe. This was a really cool bird that I have never seen in all my years growing up in Montana.

After our tour, I realized that I really like birding and really enjoy taking photos of the birds. It is a really fun activity and I look forward to going on more tours this spring and summer. Stay tuned for more bird watching photography updates!