![\"yellow-headed](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/yellow-headed-blackbird-5705-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a01\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Three days ago at Bear River MBR this male Yellow-headed Blackbird was practicing two important skills simultaneously – displaying conspicuously for other blackbirds in the area and snatching midges out of the air when the opportunity presented itself.\u00a0 In the middle of this display it noticed a midge approaching closely (the following 3 images are sequential shots in a burst).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a01\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0The birds concentration on the midge as it approached was intense…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a01\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n and it plucked the insect right out of the air.\u00a0 I missed the millisecond of the actual grab but this is just as the beak closed on the midge.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a01\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0And here the blackbird opened its beak just before swallowing it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A huge crop of the previous images gives us a better look at the midge.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The number of midges at Bear River during spring and early summer\u00a0approaches the unimaginable.\u00a0 They often form what\u00a0some call “midge tornadoes” (midge-nadoes) rising in columns over the grasses alongside the road that\u00a0can look like smoke.\u00a0\u00a0 The inside of my pickup will be buzzing with “bugs” long after leaving the refuge.\u00a0 For some reason they like vehicle headliners and if I happen to glance up they can be so thick up there that\u00a0I can barely see the liner.\u00a0 New visitors to the refuge are often highly intimidated by them (thinking they’re mosquitoes) and drive the entire 10 mile\u00a0loop road with their windows up, never to return again.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n