{"id":133419,"date":"2023-04-06T03:53:36","date_gmt":"2023-04-06T09:53:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=133419"},"modified":"2023-04-06T05:18:56","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T11:18:56","slug":"wrcnu-two-men-and-a-truck-a-loon-and-a-good-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2023\/04\/06\/wrcnu-two-men-and-a-truck-a-loon-and-a-good-friend\/","title":{"rendered":"WRCNU, Two Men And A Truck, A Loon And A Good Friend"},"content":{"rendered":"

You get a real mishmash of subjects today but sometimes that’s just the way things turn out.<\/p>\n

Readers will recall my post two days ago<\/span><\/span><\/a> about Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah (WRCNU) being forced to relocate or close their doors because of an unreasonably short moving deadline forced upon them by Ogden city officials – the mayor in particular (he has ultimate authority over the decision). The stress that DaLyn, Buz and all the volunteers at WRCNU are feeling right now must be immense.<\/p>\n

But yesterday some of my faith in humanity was restored when I saw this post on Facebook from my friend Buz Marthaler<\/a><\/span><\/span>, cofounder of WRCNU.<\/p>\n

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What a generous offer from Bijan Pishevar and Two Men and a Truck! When I saw this post from Buz I realized that this location of Two Men and Truck wasn’t much further than a stone’s throw from my house so yesterday afternoon I decided on a whim to pay them a visit. My intention was to thank Bijan personally, for whatever that might be worth.<\/p>\n

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My timing wasn’t very good because Bijan was out of the office (he was involved in opening another Two Men and A Truck location somewhere in the valley). But I met four of their employees and without exception they were friendly, outgoing and professional – even before they knew the purpose of my visit. I asked them to pass on my thanks and appreciation to Bijan and the powers that be at Two Men and a Truck and they said they would.<\/p>\n

These two gentlemen (I’m embarrassed to admit that I forgot their names) were busy with a project in the workshop that involved drying epoxy but they agreed to indulge me and pose for a photo. I wanted broad smiles out of them so just before I took the photo I told them that their zippers were down. It worked.<\/p>\n

I’ve seen Two Men and a Truck trucks around the valley for years but until yesterday I didn’t know that they’re a nationwide franchise – they have over 300 locations in the US, Canada and even in Ireland. I hope I never have to move but if I do Two Men and a Truck will be my moving outfit of choice. I love how they live up to their professed values and mission statement. I hope my readers will consider using them as well.<\/p>\n

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When I left Two Men and a Truck I realized that I had my camera and lens with me. The sun had made it’s glorious appearance for about the first time in weeks so I detoured to some ponds on my way home to see what I might find. I didn’t have high expectations but when birds are migrating you never know what might make an appearance.<\/p>\n

I was in for a couple of pleasant surprises and only one of them had feathers.<\/p>\n

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1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/p>\n

I was blown away to find this migrating Common Loon and when I first arrived it was reasonably close to me. I’ve been visiting these ponds for many years but this was the first time I’d ever seen a loon on one of them. During migration I do see them on some of our mountain reservoirs but they’re always far away and I thought finding one in the city was exceptional.<\/p>\n

I’m not all that familiar with loons so I can only guess what’s going on with all the white speckles on the face of this bird. Does anyone know for sure?<\/p>\n

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The other surprise was finding my friend and neighbor Shane Smith at the pond. Shane is the proud owner of my old Canon 7D Mark II, the same camera he has in his hands. A very high percentage of the photos you’ve seen on Feathered Photography over the years were taken with this very camera. Shane was far away so he didn’t know I was taking his photo as he was trying to photograph the same loon I’d been photographing a few minutes earlier.<\/p>\n

Shane has been a lifesaver for me during my surgery recovery and even before. He’s been doing some of my most difficult yardwork for over a year and he and his wife Kimmy regularly provided delicious food during the worst part of my recovery. He loves to smoke meat so I’ve been the recipient of ribs, brisket and a variety of other carnivorous treats.<\/p>\n

Shane is new to bird photography but he really<\/em> has the bug. I love his enthusiasm and excitement when he finds an interesting bird and he has the same enthusiasm for learning how to better use the 7DII so I try to help him all I can. He’s a quick study and the teacher in me really enjoys how far he’s come so fast.<\/p>\n

But most of all I appreciate having such a kind and thoughtful friend and neighbor.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You get a real mishmash of subjects today but sometimes that’s just the way things turn out. (4 photos)<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133420,"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":[334,6839],"tags":[6836,6834,5422,5423,6835,6838,6837,311,2209,3056],"class_list":["post-133419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds","category-common-loons-waterfowl","tag-bijan-pishevar","tag-buz-marthaler","tag-common-loon","tag-gavia-immer","tag-ogden-city-mayor","tag-shane-smith","tag-two-men-and-a-truck","tag-utah-2","tag-wildlife-rehabilitation-center-of-northern-utah","tag-wrcnu"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/common-loon-5311-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-yHV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133419","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=133419"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133474,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133419\/revisions\/133474"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}