{"id":158128,"date":"2024-05-01T06:00:14","date_gmt":"2024-05-01T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=158128"},"modified":"2024-05-01T07:35:23","modified_gmt":"2024-05-01T13:35:23","slug":"willet-diving-for-cover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2024\/05\/01\/willet-diving-for-cover\/","title":{"rendered":"Willet Diving For Cover"},"content":{"rendered":"

An effective disappearing act.<\/p>\n

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1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

Yesterday morning on Antelope Island I found several Willets perched on sagebrush but, fairly unusual for this time of year, none of them were doing anything interesting. Often in springtime they’re calling from elevated perches and flying from perch to perch and flashing the almost shockingly black and white undersides of their wings as they land.<\/p>\n

The Willets I found just stood there and stared at me. At least this one had the layered background that I enjoy so much that includes sky, Great Salt Lake and sandy beach.<\/p>\n

But then a big camping van drove by and gave me some action to photograph.<\/p>\n

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1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

The van spooked the Willet but instead of taking off and flying away as I expected, ‘he’ dived to the ground for cover amongst the other sagebrush.<\/p>\n

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1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

I managed to keep him in frame for…<\/p>\n

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1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

three photos before I started cutting off body parts. I didn’t get light in his eye in any of the photos but hopefully those eye-catching wings make up for it. What may look like a catch light at the top of his left eye is just a bright spot on his eye ring.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t until I was processing this last photo that I realized that he didn’t fly to the ground, instead he ran down the side of the sagebrush to get there. Here we see that his feet and legs are beneath him, not behind him, and his right foot is on top of the sagebrush in preparation for pushing off against it.<\/p>\n

Once he was on the ground, I never saw him again.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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PS – For those who may be curious, ‘my’ six migrating Evening Grosbeaks (five males and one female) have flown the coop. I never saw a single one of them at my feeders yesterday. But I had them for five days which is longer than I expected, so I’m grateful for that. And it’s gratifying to know that my feeders fueled them up for the rest of their journey.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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

An effective disappearing act. (4 photos)<\/p>\n

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