![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/common-goldeneye-5128-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"common-goldeneye-5128-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nA mishmash today.<\/p>\n
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1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 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 Yesterday afternoon, knowing that our forecast predicted a series of significant snowstorms coming in that would likely keep me homebound for a few days, I went down to a local pond to see if I could get lucky with a few ducks in the windy and already overcast conditions. I wasn’t particularly lucky with the ducks but in a way I struck gold while I was photographing this male Common Goldeneye.<\/p>\n I now think of him as my Lucky Duck.<\/p>\n As readers already know my snow blower croaked (wouldn’t start, there appeared to be gas in the oil so I thought it had suffered a permanent death) when I tried to use it immediately after our last big snowstorm. So I had to shovel my driveway, sidewalks, front steps and back patio the old fashioned way. I loaded it up in the back of my pickup and took it to Jordan Mower here in SLC with the intention of trading it in for parts on a new one. I was pleasantly surprised when they told me it was only a dirty carburetor and fuel system so it could be repaired but they were backed up with repairs so I wouldn’t get it back until sometime in the week after New Years.<\/p>\n So yesterday afternoon while I was down at the pond I couldn’t help feeling more than a little discouraged as I experienced the effects of the approaching storm. I certainly wasn’t looking forward to shoveling 6-8″ of wet, heavy snow again.<\/p>\n But while I was photographing this Goldeneye and a couple of others I got a call from Jordan Mower.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n My snow blower was ready to be picked up!<\/p>\n I didn’t ask any questions, I just gave up on ducks and retrieved my snow blower. Here it is in my garage\/wood shop immediately after I started it up to make sure it was repaired and was rewarded with a well running, if noisy, machine. I couldn’t be happier because as I type this at 4:15 AM there’s already more than 4″ of new snow out there and it’s supposed to continue snowing for another 24 hours. With more snow after that.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n OK, we’ve gone from ducks to snow blowers – now let’s go back to birds.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Readers will remember this banded female Rough-legged Hawk that I photographed on Christmas morning at Farmington Bay WMA.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I couldn’t read the entire band number (many of us believe<\/em> we see the numbers 224 but these bands have additional numbers) so I sent these photos to Neil Paprocki of the Rough-Legged Hawk Project to see if three numbers were enough to provide him or anybody else enough useful information to narrow down precisely which bird it is. Neil was very interested (he thinks he sees 224 also) so he used his connections to try to narrow it down. Neil’s like a bloodhound so he didn’t give up and by yesterday morning he had ferreted out the following information:<\/p>\n *It most likely isn’t one of the birds that Neil or the project has banded because none of their band numbers have 224 in the last number group.<\/em><\/p>\n *Neil checked with HawkWatch International (he used to be their Conservation Biologist) and it isn’t one of their banded birds either.<\/em><\/p>\n *But he also checked with the Salt Lake City International Airport. For safety reasons the airport traps birds on and near their runways and when they trap raptors it’s their practice to band the birds and then release them about 100 km south of Salt Lake City. It turns out that the “SLC airport banded a female RLHA back in November with a band number ending in 2249. Could be your bird if there is another number there beyond the 4 but additional photos of the band would of course help narrow things down”.<\/em><\/p>\n So, it’s very possible (even likely?) that the bird I photographed is the same one that airport personnel trapped, banded and released in November. The fact that ‘my’ bird and the airport bird are both females helps to seal the deal but we aren’t there yet. So I’m hoping that some photographer, me or someone else, can soon get additional photos of the Farmington bird that will provide additional band numbers.<\/p>\n I know I’ll be trying but other photographers with long lenses spend more time at Farmington than I do so some of them probably have a better chance of success.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A mishmash today. (4 photos)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/repaired-snowblower-b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"repaired-snowblower-b-ron-dudley\\"")
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