Twenty photographs by Vicksburg’s Bill Stripling are on display at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science.

The photos are part of a Birds of Mississippi exhibit and will be at the Jackson museum through Dec. 31.

“I like the egrets – they show off more. And the spoonbills, they’re really spectacular,” Stripling said.

Stripling’s photos were chosen for the display because of their Mississippi focus, said the museum’s librarian Mary Stevens. The exhibit includes pictures of Mississippi land and water birds, she said.

Stripling’s photos can be seen in Vicksburg. More than 75 are on the ground floor of the Mississippi River Commission on Walnut Street, which houses more than 20 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers departments. Stripling retired from the Corps in 2000. Stripling also has about three dozen photos displayed in the National Audubon Society office on Washington Street, said director Bruce Reid.

Stripling has been taking pictures since fourth grade, and has several different methods of getting the perfect shot.

If you goBill Stripling’s photographs will be on display through Dec. 31 at the library at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, 2148 Riverside Drive, Jackson. Reservations must be made. Call Mary Stevens at 601-354-7303. Hours are 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for ages 60 and older, $3 for ages 3-18 and free for younger than 3.”Many of these were taken out the back door. I set the camera up and let the birds get used to it, then I’d spend some time waiting,” he said.

Other methods include enticing woodpeckers with hollow logs propped up to look like trees and taking pictures from the car.

Stripling has traveled outside the bounds of Mississippi for pictures. “Africa is hard to beat,” he said. But, “most of the time, they’re out of my backyard.”

Stripling predominately photographs birds, and many of his pictures are of water fowl.

“The smaller birds are pretty, too, but they’re harder to get,” he said. And “birds of prey tend not to stay still too long.”