I’ve published several posts about Loggerhead Shrikes recently and yes, here’s another one. Shrikes have been my most cooperative subjects lately and I post what I shoot…
I thought this image, taken three days ago, was particularly interesting for several reasons.
1/5000, f/4.5, ISO 500, 500 f/4, natural light
This juvenile had been enthusiastically begging for food when a deer fly (I believe) unexpectedly appeared on the scene. A split second prior to this shot the bird had its wings out, its beak open and was squawking to be fed but the focus of its attention changed immediately when the biting insect appeared. Many birds are “fearful” of biting insects but I’m unsure if that was the case here or the bird was interested in the possibility of snagging the fly out of the air for a snack. This time the insect flew away without incident. In fact, I didn’t even know it had been there until I processed the shot.
The other thing I found intriguing about this image is the shadow of the deer fly on the breast of the shrike. At first I thought it was a shadow from a sprig of the sage perch but on closer inspection it clearly is not. This shot was one of a burst and the other photos (with the bird and perch in the same position and the fly gone) don’t show the shadow.
Once again, I’m fascinated by “the little things”.
Ron
Feathered Photography Update: As many of you know I’ve been plagued in recent days by issues with my hosting provider, Network Solutions (yes, I do recognize the irony in that name). My blog has been alternately extremely slow in loading or completely down. It didn’t help that this occurred during a four-day holiday weekend when the only technical help available was from outsourced “techs” in the Philippines whose “English” could barely be understood and wasn’t helpful in solving the problem anyway.
To make a very long and extremely frustrating story a little shorter, this morning Network Solutions says that they’ve had firewall issues with 4,000 databases and I was lucky enough that one of them was mine. They also said “they’re working on it”.
As of several hours ago everything seems to be working ok and I dearly hope that continues.
I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and frustration this must have caused many of my readers.
I almost always have time to wait for your thoughts and photos to load because I know what awaits me.
The deer fly shadow on the shrike touched me as well like it did your other reader. How great that you and your quick camera “saw” it.
Ver special.
wow!
Ron – I can completely sympathize with your technical difficulties with the service provide Network Solutions. At the last (an final) work I did we used NS as our website service source. Trouble was the name of the game. It seems that a lot of providers are as bad or worse… We stayed with them and just made do.
Nice shot of the shrike and the fly.
Mark
Perfect example of why I love to “burst”!!!! Well done … love it when the camera sees what the photographer does not!!!!
I couldn’t agree more, Lois. One of my absolute joys with photography is finding that unexpected “gem” of a photo that includes something I didn’t notice through the viewfinder. Birds are often so incredibly fast that it happens often enough to take some of the agony out of culling images…
I especially love the stories your photos “tell”. Great shot of a fascinating bird.
Thank you, Patty.
Again, another fabulous shot. I love these birds as well. My love for them has grown entirely from your posts. It sparked a desire to read about them and now it is my hope to one day see one in the wild.
I know what you mean about Network Solutions. I don’t have a blog, but I have a website and manage a few client sites that are hosted at NetSol. We will all be moving to a different provider as our packages come up for renewal.
I hope you get to see one sometime, Sharon.
NetSol has been having a lot of issues recently. I’ve also considered changing providers but in my case it’s kinda scary…
I love these little shrikes. This is one one of those challenges for getting two objects close to one another in focus because of the “parallax AF error” within apertures. You did a great job. I remember having ruined many shots because I either opened up or didn’t stop down enough the lens. And the second moving object demands a very high shutter speed so the timing is crucial. Lovely!
Maria, I had an unusually high shutter speed and I think that helped get the fly as sharp as it was. I did give the fly an extra dose of sharpening, though because I didn’t have much DOF.
The delicacy of the shadow of the fly on the breast of the shrike brought tears to my eyes. I find this photo deeply moving for inexplicable reasons.
I’m delighted that you like it so, Janet. Thank you.
Isn’t that 500mm an amazing lens (and 7d)? There is such a shallow depth of field here but so sharp.
It appears the insect was so close this bird had to, or at least did, cock his head to one side to see (but I could be wrong as is often the case).
I love that lens, Gary.
I believe the shrike is looking directly at the insect.
See, wrong again.
I guess I misunderstood what you said, Gary. I thought you were saying the bird was looking at the insect…
I love this shot of the Shrike. And I think I probably speak for most of your followers when I say that we will continue to follow your blog, because your photos are always worth whatever we have to go through to see them (I don’t enjoy the frustration at all, but your photos are always a bright spot in my days).
Very much appreciated, Susan. Thank you so much.