{"id":167331,"date":"2025-03-13T06:02:29","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T12:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=167331"},"modified":"2025-03-13T06:38:18","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T12:38:18","slug":"a-northern-harrier-and-another-bump-in-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/13\/a-northern-harrier-and-another-bump-in-the-road\/","title":{"rendered":"A Northern Harrier And Another Bump In The Road"},"content":{"rendered":"

A road I may not see again for a while.<\/p>\n

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1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

Last month I got a series of photos as this male Northern Harrier flew past me along the Antelope Island causeway. Here he’s flying high enough that I got water in the background but…<\/p>\n

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1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

four frames later he’d dropped below the shoreline we see at the top of the frame. His nictitating membrane is half closed but those types of shots don’t bother me as much as they used to.<\/p>\n

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1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

I was pleased that he gave me some nice variety in both backgrounds and wing positions.<\/p>\n

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These photos are a little over a month old and I’ve posted other shots of this handsome guy so you may be wondering why I’m continuing to post photos of him – other than the fact that I’m a huge fan of harriers. Well, this is my excuse. I’m without a vehicle again so I’m completely grounded at home. And hating it.<\/p>\n

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My 2020 Ford F-150 with my “old” camping trailer.<\/em><\/p>\n

Readers will remember that in late January of this year the cam phasers went out in my pickup. It’s a known problem with the Ford EcoBoost engines and the first sign of it happening is a diagnostic engine “rattle” at startup.<\/p>\n

Cam phasers (there are four of them) are engine components that adjust the camshaft position relative to the position of the crankshaft so they’re essentially embedded in the engine, which makes them very expensive to replace. The charge for that service was over $4K but thankfully I have an extended warranty, so I only had to pay the $100 deductible.<\/p>\n

Nearly three weeks ago I started hearing the rattle again, or at least a sound that could be cam phaser rattle. My Ford service advisor thinks it might be phaser rattle so yesterday morning I took my pickup into Ford for diagnosis and possible (probable?) repair. Again.<\/p>\n

And that’s where it remains. For complicated reasons I don’t have a rental car, at least not yet, and I don’t know how long it’ll be in the shop. Which leaves me in a highly disconcerting limbo.<\/p>\n

Please wish me luck. With spring birds beginning to arrive and me chomping at the bit to take my new camping trailer on its shakedown cruise, the timing is awful.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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PS – below is a short video clip of my running engine where the cam phaser “rattle” (if that’s what it is) is particularly loud. It usually goes away just a few seconds after startup but this time it lasted just a little bit longer. And then it’ll go up to a week without doing it again.<\/em><\/p>\n

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