Tag: feeding

Clark’s Grebe Chicks Competing For Food

One of the Clark’s Grebe behaviors I was able to photograph last week was the adults feeding their chicks.  The youngsters would be on the back of one parent while the other one brought in fish for breakfast.  They were always small fish, to accommodate the very young chicks. Some of these aren’t great photos but collectively I think they tell an interesting story.  I had been shooting faster action just prior to this sequence so my settings for the first shot aren’t particularly appropriate but then I quickly adjusted.   1/4000, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc  The parent bringing in the fish wouldn’t give them directly to the chicks but instead would hand them off to its mate and then that bird would feed the youngsters on its back.  Here the parent on the left has just given this small fish to the brooding adult.      1/2500, f/8, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc The chick in the water knew it had no chance to get the fish while it was there so it immediately made a bee-line for the back of its parent.  When they’re this size they still struggle to get on board.  Sometimes the parent sticks a leg out backward for the chick to climb up on but this youngster was on its own and was frantic to get up front where the food would be doled out.      1/2500, f/8, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc  I imagine it’s not easy getting up there since they have to work against the grain of the feathers of the…

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Fledgling Loggerhead Shrike Learning The Ropes

Yesterday we came across this Loggerhead Shrike fledgling perched high and pretty in the early morning light.    1/500, f/8, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc A few minutes after this shot was taken the bird flew off so we decided to look for more opportunities elsewhere and left the area.      1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Just before we quit shooting for the day we decided to look for the fledgling again in the same area as before.  We found two of them this time – one flew off almost immediately but this one allowed us some close observations for about 25 minutes.  By this time of the morning the bird was side-lit in most situations but we got to see some interesting behaviors.  Typical of youngsters this one was curious about its surroundings and spent quite a bit of time exploring the greasewood bush it was in.  Here it is about to half hop/half fly to the twigs in the upper left of the frame.     1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc  Several times it picked off one of the drier greasewood buds and played with it for a while.       1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc But a parent coming in with food always got the full attention of the fledgling.  In this image one of the adults is delivering a grasshopper to the begging young bird – you can just see the top of the parents head at the bottom of the frame as it works its way…

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Eared Grebes In Utah

Eared Grebes are the most abundant grebe on the planet and immediately after the breeding season most of the population on this continent migrates to either Mono Lake, California or the Great Salt Lake in my back yard where they feed on brine shrimp and brine flies.    1/800, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc  Most of the grebes that I see are on the Great Salt Lake where it’s difficult to get quite close enough to them for photography purposes but occasionally I’ve seen them on smaller ponds where they’re attracted by insect hatches.      1/400, f/8, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc  The eye of this species is incredibly red, almost unbelievably so.  Just to be clear, I’ve not applied any saturation to these photos.      1/800, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc  These birds are tireless feeders and divers.  In scientific studies it’s estimated that they consume between 8,000 and 70,000 brine shrimp per day.  That’s a lot of diving!      1/1600, f/8, ISO 500, 400 f/4, 1.4 tc When there’s an insect hatch they feed on the surface and as they scurry from bug to bug they’re very difficult to follow because of their quick turns and amazing swimming speed – it can be almost as challenging for the photographer as photographing small birds in flight.  Here the grebe has spotted a floating midge on the left…     1/1600, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc  approaches the midge very quickly…      1/1600, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4…

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The Western Kingbird and the Beetle

This will be another behavioral post – yes I am fascinated by interesting behaviors, perhaps overly so… I found this Western Kingbird hunting from a barbed wire perch which is quite typical for the species.  It was so focused on its prey that it let me get quite close so I was able to get better detail of the feeding behavior than I normally do.    1/500, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc  The kingbird has spotted prey on the ground      1/1250, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc  so it flew down to retrieve it.  In this case it happened to be a beetle.  You can see it clinging upside down to the darker diagonal twig just in front of the bird.      1/1250, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc  Here’s a highly cropped version of the previous image to show the beetle better.      1/1250, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc The bird grabbed the beetle but as you can see it had reached “through” the twig to get it      1/1250, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc so it got more than it bargained for.  The end of the twig broke off and wedged between the beetles abdomen and the upper mandible.      1/1000, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc So it flew back to its wire perch and tried to figure out what to do about the dilemma.  It actually spent about 15 seconds just sitting there and staring at what was in its…

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Savannah Sparrows – a Bug’s Worst Enemy

On a recent camping trip to Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge a rustic old fence near where we camped was the staging area for several hunting Savannah Sparrows.   They obviously had nests in the grass nearby and would regularly perch on the fence with prey in their beaks after hunting deep in the grasses.      Canon 7D, 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 640, EV -0.33, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Boy, did they eat a lot of bugs!  Most any kind of Arthropod seemed to be an acceptable part of their diet but this critter was one of their favorites.  I believe it to be a dragonfly larvae.     Canon 7D, 1/800, f/6.3, ISO 640, EV +0.33, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc When they returned to the fence line they would often have multiple prey in their beaks.  I expected them to either immediately consume it or deliver it to the nest but that seldom happened.  Instead they would typically hang around on the fence for extended periods of time with the prey still in their beaks – often for 10 minutes or more before eating it or flying off to their nest with it.  I can’t explain the behavior but I’m certainly not complaining about it because that little behavioral quirk gave me many opportunities to photograph them with their bills full of interesting tidbits.      Canon 7D, 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, EV +0.00, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Their diet wasn’t limited to insects either, as it wasn’t unusual to see them with spiders.      Canon…

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Canvasback – Feeding and Fighting Behavior

In April of 2008 I photographed some interesting Canvasback feeding and fighting behaviors at a local pond.   At the time I was still a relative novice at bird photography so I’ll say up front that this blog post is more about the behaviors than it is about image quality.  The almost white plumage and dark head made for a tricky exposure for a beginner and there was a significant issue with specular highlights caused by reflections off of the shiny mud.      Dive, eyes open On this day there was one drake feeding quite close to me and I was very interested in the whole process.  He would continually dive down to the muck at the bottom of the pond and come up with his head completely covered in thick dark mud.  Sometimes he would dive with his eyes open, like this.       Dive, eyes closed And other times he would dive with his eyes closed.  Either way, mud and grit in the eyes never seemed to be a problem for him.       Ol’ Muddy Head 1 When he would emerge, this is what he would look like.      Ol’ Muddy Head 2  And this.  It never failed – a true mud facial.  Canvasbacks are often referred to as the “aristocrats of ducks” but it’s hard to look very aristocratic with a face full of mud.      Shakin’ the mud off Occasionally he would try to shake as much of the mud off as possible but it never seemed to change the look of him…

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