![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/sage-thrasher-0816-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"sage-thrasher-0816-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nSome folks are pretty ho-hum about Sage Thrashers. I’m not, especially when I find one on blooming rabbitbrush.<\/p>\n
Yesterday morning on Antelope Island was pretty slow for birds. So when I saw a Sage Thrasher land near the base of a sagebrush next to the road in front of me, I decided to try to wait ‘him’ out. I parked next to the sagebush and waited for him to show himself. I probably waited for less than ten minutes but for me it was beginning to feel like forever.<\/p>\n
Eventually I got bored, to the point that I’ll admit that I was checking my phone when I happened to look up and my peripheral vision spotted movement in a flowering rabbitbrush right next to the sagebrush I’d been watching.<\/p>\n
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1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 1000, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n It was the Sage Thrasher nestled down amongst the flowers. I was shooting through a tunnel of vegetation between us so I’m pretty sure he thought I couldn’t see him. He felt safe enough that he stayed here for a long time, allowing me to take dozens of photos.<\/p>\n He even preened for a while, but I didn’t like any of those shots because I could never see his eye. Most of my photos looked almost exactly like this one.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/8000, f\/6.3, ISO 1600, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n A couple of head turns similar to this one were the only pose variety he gave me, other than preening shots that didn’t appeal to me. I miss seeing his legs and more of his tail but for my tastes, all those flowers make up for it.<\/p>\n Don’t ask me how my ISO got cranked up all the way to 1600. I have no idea. Sometimes cameras have a mind of their own.<\/em><\/p>\n When it’s rabbitbrush blooming season I’m always hoping to find birds perched amongst the flowers but it doesn’t happen very often. Rabbitbrush blooms in the fall and Sage Thrashers migrate in early fall, so by blooming time most Sage Thrashers have left my area for the winter.<\/p>\n A quick search of the Sage Thrasher photos I’ve posted to my blog suggests that this is the first time I’ve photographed a thrasher on blooming rabbitbrush. After all these years, it’s about time.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Note: I have friends who dread rabbitbrush blooming season because they’re highly allergic to rabbitbrush pollen. The species name of some rabbitbrush is \u201cnauseosa\u201d, referring to the smell given off when the leaves or flowers are crushed. That smell is described as “pineapple-like” by some but “foul and rubbery” by others.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/sage-thrasher-0739-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"sage-thrasher-0739-ron-dudley\\"")
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