![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/loggerhead-shrike-8772-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"loggerhead-shrike-8772-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nI finally got my act together.<\/p>\n
Months ago I had to take my primary backup computer into the shop for repair. A portable hard drive attached to that computer is where I’ve stored the bulk of all of my older photos that I’ve taken over the last dozen years or so. But before I took it in, lacking due diligence I didn’t record which of my five portable hard drives had been attached to that computer or which of its six USB ports I had it plugged into.<\/p>\n
When I got that computer back I didn’t know which portable hard drive to plug into which USB port, so the drive paths “remembered” by my photo organizer didn’t work. I kept trying different options\/combinations and none of them worked, so I couldn’t search that computer to find any of my older photos.<\/p>\n
But finally last night I plugged the right portable drive into the right USB port and voila – everything worked and I was delighted. So in celebration, today I’m posting some of the earliest photos I “re-found” last night that were taken over 13 years ago, on July 3, 2010. I’ve posted photos of this bird before but these three are new to my blog.<\/p>\n
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1\/1250, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n I took dozens of photos of this young Loggerhead Shrike buried in the bushes as ‘he’ tried to figure out how to impale his dragonfly prey on a sharp twig at lower left. He was obviously inexperienced, so he was having a tough time of it. He repeatedly tried to impale the dragonfly and failed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In this version of the same photo I’ve drawn a red line around his chosen ‘thorn’.<\/p>\n Shrikes instinctively impale their prey for two primary reasons:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1250, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n After many clumsy tries, he finally got the dragonfly impaled on the twig\/thorn. He looks pretty proud of himself, despite the grass drooping over his neck that robs him of some of his dignity.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n And then he began tearing off bits of the dragonfly and swallowing them (without using his feet of course). Here he’s swallowing the head of the dragonfly and one of its two pairs of wings. All we see is the wings sticking out.<\/p>\n I can’t tell you how relieved I am to finally be able to search for older photos again. In recent months I’ve had to turn down (or ignore) about a dozen image requests because I knew I wouldn’t be able to find the photos. Now that pressure is gone.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I finally got my act together. (4 photos)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/loggerhead-shrike-8772-thorn-circled-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"loggerhead-shrike-8772-thorn-circled-ron-dudley\\"")
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/loggerhead-shrike-8832-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"loggerhead-shrike-8832-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/loggerhead-shrike-8850-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"loggerhead-shrike-8850-ron-dudley\\"")
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