![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/says-phoebe-0655-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"say's-phoebe-0655-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nThe sound of little wings gave him away.<\/p>\n
Yesterday morning while I had a far-away hawk in my viewfinder I kept hearing the excited calling of multiple Say’s Phoebes coming from a rocky cove that was about 150′ in front of me. I couldn’t see them and even if I could they were much too far away for photography, so I concentrated on the hawk in case it did something interesting.<\/p>\n
Suddenly I heard the sound of little wings coming from the rabbitbrush right outside my pickup window.<\/p>\n
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1\/5000, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n It was one of the phoebes who had spotted small insects on and flying above the rabbibrush. ‘He’ was hunting them so he’d land for a few seconds until he spotted one and then he’d go after it. If the insect was flying he’d take off and attempt to snag it right out of the air (a type of insect-hunting called “hawking”.). If the insect was on the rabbitbrush he’d go after it there.<\/p>\n He completely ignored me, even though I was close.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/5000, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n He landed on different rabbitbrush plants four different times but only twice did he stay long enough for me to get him in focus. This photo was taken the second time.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/5000, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n The rabbitbrush was flexible and springy enough that it slowed him down a little when he took off so this time I managed to get…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/5000, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n two photos of him lifting off. After a different takeoff I got four photos of him in full flight but I was disappointed when all four turned out to be soft.<\/p>\n Them’s the breaks in bird photography.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Note: <\/em><\/p>\n Even though I was out in the middle of nowhere I had two interesting encounters with humans yesterday morning. One was with a sheriff who stopped to check out what I was doing. My pool noodle ‘lens rest’ on my window resembles a makeshift rifle rest so law enforcement (cops of various kinds, including wildlife law officers) sometimes check me out pretty carefully to see if I’m a poacher. He turned out to be a nice guy, so we jawboned about birds and deer and photography for about 15 minutes. He also told me about a female bird photographer he’d encountered earlier that was coming our way. I told him I probably knew who it was, and I was right.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n A few minutes later, there she was – it was my good friend, blog follower and bird rehabber April Olson. So April and I jabbered for another 10 minutes or so. Usually I don’t like to stop and talk to folks when I’m photographing birds (birds nearly always come first) but for April, and for a friendly sheriff, I’ll make exceptions.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/says-phoebe-0710-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"say's-phoebe-0710-ron-dudley\\"")
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