![\"sage](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/sage-thrasher-8610-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBefore we get to the main event of this post I must report that\u00a0a pleasant surprise awaited me on Antelope Island yesterday morning.<\/p>\n
Some will recall that my impatience over\u00a0the return of Sage Thrashers to northern Utah was the subject of yesterday’s post. Normally I don’t see them until early\u00a0April but I’d been missing them on the island lately so I posted some thrasher images out of fondness and anticipation, fully expecting another several weeks to pass before I encountered one.<\/p>\n
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\u00a01\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon<\/em> EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n So what a joy (and coincidence) it was to find this Sage Thrasher and several others flitting around the Tintic Quartzite boulders on the north end of the island!\u00a0I don’t recall ever seeing them this early so I suspect that the timing of their migration has been influenced by our unusually warm winter and early spring. I just looked back through my files and the earliest I’ve photographed the species in this area has been April 10 (though I’d seen a few birds slightly earlier).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a01\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon<\/em> EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n But one of\u00a0my favorite images from yesterday morning was this Black-billed Magpie taking off from its nest bush. I like the good look at the topside of the bird and of course the iridescence. This bird and its mate were busy hauling twigs and mud to their nest so their bills were often plastered with mud but this time the magpie had “cleaned up” for its portrait, though there wasn’t much it could do about\u00a0that somewhat ratty tail.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n As always I take great care to avoid disturbing birds anywhere near their nests.\u00a0These magpies are acclimated to human presence on the island but even so I don’t ever approach the nest and I watch their behavior for any signs of disturbance. I always shoot from inside my pickup and from the road.\u00a0Shooting at an effective focal length of 1120mm (500mm\u00a0lens x 1.4 teleconverter x 1.6 crop factor of\u00a0my camera) allows me to get\u00a0fairly close optically rather than physically and you don’t have to get very close for flight shots anyway. In fact there are times\u00a0when these birds almost crawl under my pickup in their quest for nesting material.<\/p>\n I’m fully aware that some folks don’t much appreciate magpies but over the years they’ve become one of my favorite subjects.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Before we get to the main event of this post I must report that a pleasant surprise awaited me on Antelope Island yesterday morning.<\/p>\n![\"black-billed](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/black-billed-magpie-8405-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"black-billed](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/black-billed-magpie-nest-6145b-ron-dudley.jpg\")
This is one of the nests I’ve been photographing for several years now.\u00a0Magpie nests\u00a0tend to be\u00a0large, domed structures made of sticks and twigs with an internal mud bowl with a grass lining, though there’s great variation among nests which suggests that cultural traditions influence nest-building.\u00a0It’s even\u00a0thought that magpies may\u00a0imprint on their natal nests and later\u00a0construct similar ones.<\/p>\n