![\"loggerhead](\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/loggerhead-shrike-0902-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n1\/5000, f\/4.5, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, natural light<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n This juvenile had been enthusiastically\u00a0begging for food when a deer fly (I believe)\u00a0unexpectedly appeared on the scene.\u00a0\u00a0 A split second prior to this shot the bird had its wings out, its beak open and was squawking to be fed but the focus of its attention changed immediately when the\u00a0biting insect appeared.\u00a0 Many birds are “fearful” of biting insects but I’m unsure if that was the case here or the bird was interested in the possibility of snagging the fly out of the air for a snack.\u00a0 This time the insect\u00a0flew away without incident.\u00a0 In fact, I didn’t even know it had been there until I processed the shot.<\/p>\n The other thing I found intriguing about this image is the shadow of the deer fly on the breast of the shrike.\u00a0 At first I thought it was a shadow from a sprig of the sage perch but on closer inspection it clearly is not.\u00a0 This shot was one of a burst and the other photos (with the bird and perch in the same position and the fly gone) don’t show the shadow.<\/p>\n Once again, I’m fascinated by “the little things”.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n Feathered Photography Update:<\/strong>\u00a0 As\u00a0many of you know I’ve been plagued in recent days by issues with my\u00a0hosting provider, Network Solutions (yes, I do recognize the irony in that name).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My blog\u00a0has been alternately extremely slow in loading or completely down.\u00a0 It\u00a0didn’t help that this occurred during a four-day holiday weekend when the only technical help available was from outsourced “techs” in the Philippines whose “English” could barely be understood and wasn’t helpful in solving the problem anyway.<\/em><\/p>\n To make a very long and extremely frustrating story a little shorter, this morning Network Solutions says that they’ve had firewall issues with 4,000\u00a0databases\u00a0and I was lucky enough that one of them was mine.\u00a0 They also said “they’re working on it”.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n As of several hours ago everything seems to be working ok and I dearly hope that continues.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and frustration this must have caused many of my readers.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I thought this image was particularly interesting for several reasons.<\/p>\n This juvenile had been enthusiastically begging for food when a deer fly (I believe) unexpectedly appeared on the scene. A split second prior to this shot the bird had its wings out, its beak open and was squawking to be fed but the focus of its attention changed immediately when the biting insect appeared.<\/p>\n