![\"western](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/western-meadowlark-2379-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAntelope Island is crawling (and flying)\u00a0with “bugs” right now.\u00a0 Mosquitoes are common, flying midges are thick as are the dreaded biting gnats (I call this the “itching and bitching” season)\u00a0and it won’t be long until the brine flies are at their peak.\u00a0 Grasshoppers are becoming big enough to be noticed and\u00a0the famous (infamous) spiders on the island are becoming more\u00a0apparent.\u00a0 But the timing couldn’t\u00a0be better for birds, many of whom are feeding\u00a0nests full of young.<\/p>\n
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\u00a01\/3200, 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 For most of the year it’s unusual to find a perched Western Meadowlark with insects in its beak because they usually consume them\u00a0immediately after capture but when they’re feeding young they typically land on\u00a0an elevated perch for a few moments before delivering the meal to the nest.\u00a0\u00a0 This isn’t\u00a0a great\u00a0image but it’s a flight shot with prey so I kept it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/3200, 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 first Sage Thrasher fledglings are just beginning to appear but many of them are still in the nest and must be fed.\u00a0 This adult has a juicy spider, presumably for its nestlings.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/1000, f\/5.6, ISO 1000, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Not many birds can cram more insects in their beaks before delivering them to the nest than meadowlarks.\u00a0 And their instinct to sing is so strong that they usually\u00a0attempt to do so with a mouthful which is quite comical to watch (and listen to).<\/p>\n These first two images were taken yesterday but this meadowlark shot was taken three days ago on a morning that turned cloudy just before we got to the island.\u00a0 I can’t resist relating my extremely frustrating experience with light\u00a0that morning.\u00a0 Typically I’ll cruise the island for quite a while before I get an opportunity with a bird but on this morning there was action all around me for a time.\u00a0 There was a Burrowing Owl perched nicely on a sagebrush, this meadowlark with a beak full of bugs (it stayed perched for a long time) and a Northern Mockingbird\u00a0doing his courtship display in a performance that lasted over half an hour.\u00a0 In 31 minutes I fired off 680 shots of all three species but mostly of the mockingbird.\u00a0 I knew the action shots were likely to be marginal because of the poor light but I hoped to get lucky on a few of them.\u00a0 Didn’t happen.\u00a0\u00a0 Almost all of those shots were garbage and the few I kept were marginal.<\/p>\n Why oh why can’t there be light when something like that happens???<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Antelope Island is crawling (and flying) with “bugs” right now. Mosquitoes are common, flying midges are thick as are the dreaded biting gnats (I call this the “itching and bitching” season).<\/p>\n![\"sage](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/sage-thrasher-2466-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"western](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/western-meadowlark-1551-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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