Tales From The Field

Sometimes the story of the photo is better than the photo itself.

What I’m about to tell you may be more than you want to know.

Black-billed Magpies in the city, or on Antelope Island, can be fairly tame but elsewhere around here they’re usually nearly impossible to approach. Four days ago, while I was cruising for birds in a remote area of Box Elder County, I spotted multiple family groups of magpies close to the road but each time they noisily flew off before I could get anywhere near them.

After several such encounters with magpies, I realized that I had to pee. After consuming my typical two large travel mugs of coffee and a travel mug of milk to go along with my chocolate donut, a pee stop was inevitable. And overdue.

As I was looking for a secluded spot on the road where I could do my business, I encountered the first of several loosely associated flocks of 150-200 Chukars that were eating insects on the road in front of me (I posted a photo of some of those Chukars two days ago). So I spent the next 15 minutes driving very slowly forward as I attempted to encourage some of the Chukars off the road and into better light so I could photograph them in natural habitat – without success.

By the time my extended exercise in frustration with the Chukars was over, my bladder was about to explode. So I stopped at an appropriate spot on the isolated dirt road, got out and started to relieve myself while I was standing between my open door and the inside of my pickup while my lens was sitting almost within reach on my lens caddy about three feet away.

I’m thinking you can guess what happened next.

Sure enough, while I was standing there taking a leak, I spotted a young magpie flying directly at me. While I was otherwise occupied, I just knew ‘he’ was going to land very close to me and in good light, just out of spite.

 

 

1600, f/7.1, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in

And that’s exactly what happened.

He landed so close I knew I’d barely be able to fit him in the frame, even if I did have my lens in my hand. So I decided to finish my business, knowing he’d fly off if I reached for my lens. But he didn’t. I took the time to completely empty my bladder, grab my lens and aim it out the window of my open pickup door while I was still standing on the road.

So here we are, just staring at each other. He allowed me enough time to get 16 photos of him before he flew off, but of course he was way too close for me to get any takeoff or flight shots without cutting off body parts.

I won’t soon forget how frustrating it was to be standing there with the magpie so close and in good light and me with the wrong tool in my hands.

At least I got some shots before he left.

Ron

 

PS – I anticipate that “Tales From The Field” will become an ongoing, if irregular, feature on Feathered Photography. We’ll see how that goes.

 

35 Comments

  1. I’m still grinning. Your tales are as good as your photos. Thanks, Ron

  2. Arwen Professional Joy Seeker

    Professor!!!! Lololol. I’ll bet that was a female.

  3. You make my day! Such a wonderful photographer and so funny.

  4. Delightful post, Ron.

  5. Late to the party, Ron, but laughing out loud nonetheless. Looking forward to more “tales”.

  6. Funny post. My best rock find this trip has a similar calling of nature. While hunting for jasper and agates I pulled over to a larger clump of rabbit brush, few a far between in Cainville, when I looked down at what I am about to anoint it is the biggest pile of fossilized Gryphaea, an extinct oyster, commonly called Devil’s Toenails. I almost had wet pants trying to find another large rabbit brush without fossils.

  7. Big smiles. And how wonderful that the magpie didn’t vamoose when you changed tools.

    • Thanks, Ron!

      Cracks. Me. Up.

      BTW, I am an experienced (i.e. “old”) birder, but I am locally famous for only keeping one list: “Raptor species seen while urinating”. Long story about how it all started, but the list total is 17 species and “holding”.😁🤪

      Thanks again!
      Cheers,
      Dick

  8. You’re a little (well, maybe not so little — I never assume) devil, aren’t you, Ron! 😈 You definitely made me guffaw and be thankful that I wasn’t drinking anything while reading your blog this morning. 😂😂😂

    A mentor of mine, now long-gone, unfortunately, used to say, “Be at the right place, at the right time, with the right equipment, and the right attitude.” Right off, you hit 3 out of 4 and eventually batted 1.000! 😉

  9. I bet those chuckers are eating spilled grain.

    • Steven, I suppose it’s possible but in this case I think it’s unlikely, for several kind of complicated reasons. And even though Chukars often eat grain when it’s available, they also eat insects.

  10. I love “Tales from the Field”! Can’t wait to see more!

  11. Jorge Horácio Oliveira

    Hi Ron,

    Your post today made me smile. I hope that your intention to continue this series, even if irregularly, comes to fruition.

    Beautiful image of a very elusive bird.

  12. Still laughing out loud ‘with the wrong tool in my hands’ 🤣😂 YES more ‘Tales from the Field’ please.

  13. Hilarious! 🙂 At least you got the shot!

    Worst I ever had was duck hunting(more like being there so someone else could shoot into my limit). My lily white ass sticking over the edge of a boat with ducks coming in and being told “don’t move, don’t move!” Other hunters actually got a couple of ducks off that one……. 😉

    “Crick” down a few inches this morning – still incredibly high for this time of year – obviously LOTS of rain upstream!

  14. Thanks for the laugh this morning!

  15. When I first saw the “Tales” I thought for sure it was a play on words and the post would then show a fox tail or mountain lion tail etc.
    But a fun post. All we nature photographers probably have bladder stories. I remember a couple times starting to relief myself and suddenly there was a bird right there that I had to get. Envy you your Magpies and wished we had them here.

    • “All we nature photographers probably have bladder stories.”

      That’s a very good point, Everett.

      As my good friend Jim DeWitt has to say about situations like this – “The bird gods do like their little jokes.”

  16. Magpie had never seen such human behavior in the wild. He came near for a closer observation. 😎

  17. “…two large travel mugs of coffee and a travel mug of milk to go along with my chocolate donut…”

    Ah, breakfast of champions!

    Perhaps the magpie was studying you and your tools as much as you were studying him.

    Well written narrative of an entertaining tale. More please!

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