Everybody Wants a Word

The birds spent the whole day working the lens, and eleven of the day's frames were worth keeping — nearly all of them a bird staring straight down the barrel of the camera.

Morning through midday belonged to the hens. A brown hen behind a wooden beam at 08:28, another in the run at 09:12, a speckled hen calling with her beak open at 10:22, a golden-brown bird on sunlit wood chips at 11:42. A white-and-black rooster worked the fence line at 10:03, and a grey rooster showed crisp, detailed feathering at 14:00.

The late afternoon was the roosters' hour. From 16:00 on, one bird after another held the camera — a golden rooster beside the feeder, a red-comb bird flanked by a dark speckled hen and a golden-brown one pecking the ground, a white hen with full, crisp feathers, and at 17:47 a reddish-brown rooster perched square on top of the waterer. Others used it properly: a hen drinking at 17:02, a rust-and-white rooster with its head down in a metal tub at 18:00.

The light held to 19:05, roosters still posing, hens still foraging behind them. 24,296 frames captured across the farm.

-Bubba