And also being more than a little clumsy.
1/5000, f/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
Two days ago in northern Utah I found a hotspot for Sage Thrashers near a mixed clump of Fragrant Sumac and Wild Rose bushes. About a half dozen thrashers kept coming in to feed on the sumac berries and they would land on some of the dead branches near the top of the bushes before diving in and gorging themselves.
Even though this bird chose a rather cluttered perch ‘he’ was more cooperative than most so I got quite a few photos of him perched here.
1/4000, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
At one point he tried to change his position on the perch and lost his balance in the process. His reaction to his predicament made me smile.
1/5000, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
But he stabilized himself again and posed some more.
At this point of course my goal was takeoff or flight shots and this time…
1/5000, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
I succeeded, despite the fact that he took off in my general direction. Given his direction of takeoff this wing position is probably about the best I could hope for.
This was probably the last I’ll see of Sage Thrashers this year. In Utah the vast majority of them will have migrated south by the middle of this month and they won’t start coming back until April of next year.
I’ll definitely miss having them around.
Ron
On an unrelated note:
Readers have often heard me complain about the woefully inaccurate predictions of weather forecasters but every once in a polka-dot moon they get it right. Yesterday our forecast for last night and this morning was for rain and wind gusts up to hurricane force near our canyons and that’s exactly what we had during the night. At the moment our high winds are intermittent – it’ll be reasonably calm for a while and then all hell will break loose. As I write this it’s still dark o’clock out there but a few minutes ago I could hear debris of some kind being blown down the street.
But I’m thankful for three things related to this storm:
- The rain should help with some of our fires.
- The east wind should clear our air, at least temporarily, from the smoke from the California fires.
- I’m infinitely thankful that I had my huge and dangerous old elm tree removed last year. If I hadn’t I’d bet dollars to chocolate donuts that I’d have awakened this morning to damage to my house and my neighbors house from falling limbs. Or maybe the entire tree.
We’ll see what the dawn brings.
Late Addendum: So far this morning the only damage I’ve noticed has been to my garden. Some of those Amaranth were 8′ tall before they blew down. So far I’ve been lucky. Very lucky.
At least my tomatoes are OK. No BLT’s using garden tomatoes for the next couple of months – now that would have been a real disaster.
For an LBB that is one striking bird. They don’t occur here in NW Washington either, unfortunately. In the 2nd photo he looks to be giving the Sumac a good thrashing.
The wildfire smoke arrived here mid-morning. A slight inconvenience compared to you and others.
Amaranth? Ornamental or?
It’s ornamental, Lyle. A neighbor gave me some seeds over 20 years ago and I keep getting volunteers every year. I like them so much I just let some of them grow.
I’ve been thinking of you and your BLTs! Glad the tomatoes are OK. Wish we could get some rain here too.
Glad the Sage Thrasher didn’t go ass-over-teakettle. What a cutie!
Thanks, Marty. No BLT’s lasting into the early fall would have been more than I could take. We love them so much we have them a couple of times each week.
At least the sage thrasher didn’t face plant. Which I would have. Which I have done. And yes, I say ‘things’ on the way down.
I love that you found a co-operative bird, and am very, very glad that you escaped the worst of the wind damage.
Thanks, EC. I’ve only escaped it SO FAR. There have been wind gusts in some areas of the valley as high as 112 mph and 120,000 households are now without power. The wind’s supposed to last through tomorrow morning and my power could go out at any moment. This is nuts.
I hope your ‘so far’ lasts.
I believe this bird is new to me. Now, I’ll need to go back to some LBB’s older pics and check their eye color. I live in Arizona but we’re in Park City for the summer. Your pictures are so perfect and I always enjoy the heck out of them. Colder than we’re used to right now here and snowy and windy.
Thank you, Linda. I’ll bet the current Park City weather is quite a change for you right now. I can see snow in the mountains in your direction from my house.
Thanks Ron for starting my morning off with series ❗️Perfect takeoff pic 😍
When you mentioned the wind, my first thought was thank goodness he had his trees cut down. And the you said it.
Today we have a heat and wind advisory until late tonight. A dangerous combination. They get a handle on one fire and another starts….
Diana, our wind is supposed to continue through tomorrow morning. Good luck with your fires.
Love that “topaz” eye-color in the Thrasher– don’t believe I’ve seen its like
in a bird before. Terrifying winds in southern Utah, so much so that for once,
I was up much earlier than your usual post, wondering if the huge old Cottonwood tree in my backyard was going to drop an enormous limb on
my house ! They’re not quite as brittle as an elm, but getting there…..glad
you had the foresight to anticipate something like this front, and act
prophylactically to save your (and your neighbor’s ) roof !
Kris, getting rid of that tree was expensive but that expense was nowhere near the cost of repairing the likely damage to our two houses in a windstorm like this. Many semitrucks have been blown over and there’s lots of damage just to the north of me.
60,000 households are without power. So far I’m lucky.
What a lovely series, Ron! Always a treat to see one out in the open!
Thank you, Diane.
“He” looks like he is shrieking at an offending twig. Obviously the clumsiness is not HIS fault. 😀 😀 😀 I know this feeling! I am even klutzier now than I used to be. My balance issues sometimes make me look like a gymnast NOT sticking her landing. More like windmilling my arms and waving one foot in the air trying to find solid land. 😀
Be careful, Arwen. One of our regular commenters on Feathered Photography broke her femur recently, I assume in a fall. It isn’t my place to mention her name in that context but I’ve sure been thinking about her.
I am. I’ve also been doing a bit of yoga to try to work on my balance. It’s worse due to being rear-ended recently. UGH. And thank you for your concern, professor!.
Love these shots Ron. A very handsome bird that I have never seen here. We show it here as “accidental” meaning there are less than 5 sightings per year. My favorite is the change of position one. We went from 95 down to a high of 77 today with heavy cloud cover. We keep having these serious microbursts and late yesterday the fire department’s water rescue team was called out to help 15 kayakers and paddle-boarders who were caught in one on our Watson Lake that knocked the boarders down and flipped the kayaks.
Thanks, Everett. It’s 47° here right now and with the wind blowing it feels COLD out there.
Nice pictures of the thrasher.I would be a little clumsy trying to settle among the dried stems…I always fear for the birds when I see them fly quickly into the cockspur hawthorns…one could easily impale themselves. It looks to be slightly smaller than our Brown Thrasher that we have here and doesn’t seem to have as an extreme ‘dour’ expression as the brown does. But there is no mistaking the ‘thrasher eyes’. I haven’t seen any browns in the area for the past few weeks so I imagine they have started heading out. We still have hummers and the orioles are beginning to dwindle…15 or so here on Friday, 4 or so on Saturday and only saw 2 this a.m. so far. Tis that sad time of the year…😞
“there is no mistaking the ‘thrasher eyes’”
Yes, that feature of thrashers is quite distinctive isn’t it Kathy.
Talking with the wife last night about how thankful I am to not have that tree there with this incoming storm. Thank you! If there is any cleanup that needs to take place, please let us know.
Thanks, Shane. Isn’t it a relief to have that tree gone! Especially this morning!!
Cute shot of the Sage Thrasher! 😀 We got 1/2″ rain – we’ll take it – and a high in the mid-40’s yesterday with NNE winds. Cleared smoke but with the wind don’t know how much it helped the fires. West of the divide got the wind in spades from the sound of it. 34 this morning and no wind – other areas did get the predicted hard freeze including Great Falls. 59 for today and low 80’s later in the week. Sounded like a horrific, unseasonable wind event for Oregon and WA as well as some further south. Brother Mike & I were talking about the old elms of our youth in GF and your elm a couple of days ago…….😉
Thanks for that report, Judy. The way things are going I’m still not sure if I’ll be doing a MT trip this month.
These are wonderful photos of the thrasher. Even though I’m not particularly good with bird identification, this one has just enough of a hint of the brown thrasher I’m familiar with that I might have gotten ‘thrasher’ right if asked what I thought the bird might be.
Speaking of birds and weather, the hummingbird migration seems to be in full force here. No one’s been able to figure it out (at least in my circle of friends), but when I got up this morning and heard about the snow in the mountain west and the cold front barreling toward the Texas Panhandle, it made some sense. The teal have been coming in by the hundreds — it’s time to start watching for the white pelicans and coots.
Shoreacres, for the last several days social media has been abuzz about migrating hummingbirds. It’s that time of year and I suspect this storm in the west pushed them over the edge. I think I saw my last hummer of the year in my yard four days ago.
No more voice recognition for me! I’ll discipline myself to waiting until I’m in front of the computer before riding in. Why, I don’t even know what that last sentence of mine was supposed to be! 🙂
These are enchanting, Ron! It’s so easy to project feelings onto these most expressive birds you capture on film… I imagine I see a touch of indignation tempered with the determination to keep his dignity… Possibly after his scramble with his balance?
Quite lovely soft background. I’d like to the eye in the spirit, and I love the detail and always, the eye light.
Ha, don’t worry about it. We’ve all had something similar happen. You should see how voice to text butchers some of my emails and texts.