{"id":100329,"date":"2021-07-16T05:56:03","date_gmt":"2021-07-16T11:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=100329"},"modified":"2021-07-16T07:16:16","modified_gmt":"2021-07-16T13:16:16","slug":"lazuli-buntings-and-more-mink-sightings-from-yesterday-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/16\/lazuli-buntings-and-more-mink-sightings-from-yesterday-morning\/","title":{"rendered":"Lazuli Buntings And More Mink Sightings From Yesterday Morning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another “feathers and fur” post.<\/p>\n

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Lazuli Buntings are always high on my list of potential photo subjects but I find them difficult to approach until they transition to a diet that includes more ripening grass seeds – then they tend to stick around their food source, even with me fairly close. Yesterday morning I had better luck with them than I’ve had for a good long time. I didn’t get any great shots of them but I think I got a few pretty decent ones. Besides, the beautifully colored males can make me overlook some shortcomings in my photos.<\/p>\n

This male bunting and a female, possibly his mate, came in reasonably close to me to forage for seeds in the ripening grasses below me. Due to molt and feather wear he’s beginning to look just a little rough around the edges but he’s still beautiful.<\/p>\n

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More often than not both birds were hidden or partially hidden in the vegetation. I took an entire series of photos while the male was perched here but the breeze kept blowing grass stems in front of him so this is the least obstructed shot I managed to get.<\/p>\n

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A different crop of the same photo reveals what attracted them to this spot – ripening grass seeds.<\/p>\n

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Here the male has a grass seed in his bill. While on this very convenient perch all he had to do was reach back with his head and bill and pluck a seed out of the seed head curled over his back and he did so repeatedly. The table was set and breakfast served.<\/p>\n

Both birds would sometimes spend as long as five minutes or so feeding on the same seed head. It was frustrating for me because I rarely if ever had clear shots of them. But I sure had fun trying.<\/p>\n

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The only time I got clear shots of the female was when she was much further away. In case you’re wondering, yes this was a very difficult exposure because of the brightly-lit bird and the very dark background.<\/p>\n

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Later in the morning at a different place in the valley I got a few shots of another male as he was singing on a leaning willow branch.<\/p>\n

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OK, lets transition from feathers to fur.<\/p>\n

Blog followers will remember that ten days ago I got photos of a mink, the first mink I’ve been able to photograph in 12 years. There were actually four minks in the same family group but I only got decent photos of one of them.<\/p>\n

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Yesterday morning I saw the mink family once again and this time there were five of them! They weren’t very close and for some reason I was having trouble getting sharp shots but this photo looks reasonably good. Here the mink is using an old tree root sticking out of the mud as a stepping stone just before ‘he’ plunged into the water below.<\/p>\n

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Later that morning in an area miles away from this one I was blown away when I surprised another mink (and myself) that was only about 10′ from me. It was a completely unexpected encounter that I wasn’t prepared for so needless to say I didn’t get any photos before it did what mink do and disappeared.<\/p>\n

I’ve been photographing birds, wildlife and nature in this valley for years and never got photos of a mink there until 10 days ago. My recent experiences with them suggest to me that minks may be one of the few species that are adapting to all the current, rapid and negative environmental changes occurring all around us.<\/p>\n

Or maybe not. Nature is complicated.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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PS – For the last two days WordPress has been on a nonsensical rampage and adding a “+” between the first and last names of some of my readers when they comment. It’s also requiring some long-time commenters to have their comment approved by me before it will post. I’ll try to get to the bottom of it.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Another “feathers and fur” post.<\/p>\n

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