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<\/p>\nThey weren’t happy about that snake.<\/p>\n
Three days ago my friend Shane and I found a couple of Say’s Phoebes that were repeatedly hovering in front of what I’m going to call a small ‘cave’ in the west desert. They would hover in front of the opening for perhaps five seconds or so, perch nearby to rest, and then hover in front of the cave again.<\/p>\n
Documenting their hovering with photos I like was very difficult because the rocky background was so close to them and the contrast between the shade of the cave and the bright rocks in front was extreme. And of course when they were hovering they had their backs to me because they were looking at something in the cave that obviously upset them.<\/p>\n
After a while Shane spotted what they were upset about. It was a gopher snake back in the dark depths of the small cave.<\/p>\n
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Only one time was one of the phoebes brave enough to land this close to the cave entrance. Here we see the top of the cave at the bottom of the frame, with the upset phoebe at upper right.<\/p>\n
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One of the very few sharp shots I got of a hovering phoebe. The bird is looking away from me because it’s concentrating on the cave and its menacing inhabitant.<\/p>\n
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Here one of the phoebes has just finished hovering and is beginning to accelerate away from the cave entrance at lower left. It’s the best phoebe flight shot I got where the bird is sharp and we can see its face and eye.<\/p>\n
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Between bouts of hovering they would perch in various places to rest. This one chose barbed wire very close to me.<\/p>\n
It may look like the bird was calling but it wasn’t. It was panting (gular fluttering). Hovering is very hard work for songbirds and it didn’t help that it was beginning to get hot.<\/p>\n
Notice that the phoebe in photo #1 is also panting.<\/p>\n
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After more than six minutes of bouts of hovering in front of the cave and then resting, both phoebes seemed to settle down a little. At this point they began to spend part of their time hunting bugs, before flying in front of the cave to check on the snake again. This bird is looking for insects in the grass below it.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/gopher-snake-3907c-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"gopher-snake-3907c-ron-dudley\\"")
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I only had one brief look at the gopher snake, or at least most of it, in the cave. The next time I searched for it with my lens it had moved lower down where it was hidden by vegetation.<\/p>\n
It was nice to see a gopher snake again, a living one at that. Usually when I see gopher snakes in that area, they’re roadkill.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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They weren’t happy about that snake. (6 photos)<\/p>\n