{"id":103690,"date":"2021-10-29T06:56:32","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T12:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=103690"},"modified":"2021-10-29T07:49:26","modified_gmt":"2021-10-29T13:49:26","slug":"red-breasted-nuthatch-about-to-drop-into-the-void","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2021\/10\/29\/red-breasted-nuthatch-about-to-drop-into-the-void\/","title":{"rendered":"Red-breasted Nuthatch About To Drop Into The Void"},"content":{"rendered":"

Plus an update on my lens repair.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/6400, 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<\/em><\/p>\n

This is an older photo of a Red-breasted Nuthatch taken just over two years ago in the mountains of the west desert. The nuthatch had been foraging for Douglas Fir seeds in the cones but I knew from this posture, with ‘him’ also looking down, that he was about to take off and try his luck elsewhere. At this point timing is crucial for a photographer like me who’s nearly always after takeoff and flight shots so I kept firing off short bursts in the hope of catching him in flight. But this time, as so often happens, he waited until I paused between bursts to take off so I missed the opportunity. But I was still pleased to get this photo and a few others similar to it.<\/p>\n

Because of our drought I’m worried about the supply of Douglas Fir seeds this year and by extension our nuthatches and other birds and critters that feed on them. The fir cones have been opening late this year and I’ve yet to see a single nuthatch foraging for their seeds. I’m concerned that the seeds within the cones might be unusually small or somehow less nutritious or appealing to birds, causing the nuthatches to not show up, or at least not stay long when they do. I tend to be a worrywart but I am concerned.<\/p>\n

This morning I had hoped to make another trip to this area in the mountains to check on the nuthatches but those plans evaporated last night with an electrical problem with my home that requires an electrician so I’m staying home in the hope of getting an electrician here sometime this morning.<\/p>\n

Potentially this could mean a very expensive upgrade of my electrical panel so wish me luck. With all the money I’ve spent on home upgrades and repairs recently I may have to smash my piggy bank.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

PS – Yesterday I finally heard from Canon about my lens repair. I know from experience that these early contacts with the repair facility often reveal very little about what was wrong and what they did to fix it. All I know at this point is that they “Cleaned and checked all functions and repaired to good working order”. I should know more with the paperwork that comes with the returned lens. I’m hoping that they ship it off to me today.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The (relatively) good news is that they “only” charged me $231 for the repair and apparently no new parts were required. It could have been much more expensive. The other side of that coin is that any money I saved with my lens repair, and probably a lot more, will almost certainly be going into the pocket of today’s electrician. They get you coming and going..<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Plus an update on my lens repair.<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[334,8,392],"tags":[5692,5990,4309,4313,311],"class_list":["post-103690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds","category-ecology-and-environment","category-feeding-bird-behaviors","tag-canon-lens-repair","tag-effect-of-drought-on-douglas-fir-seeds","tag-red-breasted-nuthatch","tag-sitta-canadensis","tag-utah-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/red-breasted-nuthatch-7240-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-qYq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103690"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103706,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103690\/revisions\/103706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}