![\"black-billed](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/black-billed-magpie-6694-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMy telephoto lens often allows me to see things that surprise me.<\/p>\n
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1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n Two days ago I photographed this Black-billed Magpie and about a half-dozen of his buddies on Antelope Island as they foraged a campsite for food. Magpies are opportunistic feeders and I\u00a0figured they were looking mostly for food scraps from campers because it was my assumption that there wasn’t much else available on the island for them to eat this time of year except for seeds and\u00a0occasional road kill and there’s usually not much of that.<\/p>\n I only include this image to set the stage. We’ve had a cold winter so far with lots of snow and\u00a0low temperatures. This campsite is on a south-facing slope so much of the snow there was gone but the ground stays\u00a0mostly frozen even when it warms up a little in the afternoons. Morning temperatures on the island have typically been between 10 and 20 degrees F. and sometimes colder (though it’s warmed up a little in recent days).\u00a0In this image we see patches of snow in the background and ice in the foreground. As I was watching these magpies hopping around looking for food I saw them slip\u00a0on the ice about a half-dozen times – it was really quite comical but I never got any photos of it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1250, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n Occasionally I saw one of them pick\u00a0something up and swallow it but\u00a0the item\u00a0was always too small to identify through my lens. But when I got home and saw this image on my screen my curiosity was piqued because I thought it looked like an insect but figured that was highly unlikely this time of year.<\/p>\n I decided to crop\u00a0tightly on the bird’s head to see if I could tell for sure what it was.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n These magpies were apparently eating insects. In\u00a0northern Utah in the middle of January!<\/p>\n I’m no entomologist but to my eye this prey item looks millipede-ish. I was blown away to find birds eating insects on the island this time of year. Nature is full\u00a0of surprises but I never even considered this possibility. Perhaps it’s simply a testament to the adaptability of insects and the foraging skills of birds.<\/p>\n Or maybe, just maybe, it’s also a consequence of climate change. After all, just a few days ago NOAHH and NASA jointly\u00a0announced that 2015 was the\u00a0warmest year on record (since 1880 when record\u00a0keeping began) and that December was both the warmest and wettest on record (more on that\u00a0announcement can be seen here<\/a>).<\/p>\n I suppose it’s also possible that this isn’t as unusual as I think it is but I wouldn’t expect to see active insects on the island until about March and even then they’d be few and far between.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My telephoto lens often allows me to see things that surprise me.<\/p>\n![\"black-billed](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/black-billed-magpie-6838-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"black-billed](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/black-billed-magpie-6838-big-crop-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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