![\"midges](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/midges-0624-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nTis the season for midges in northern Utah.<\/p>\n
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This time of year the concentrations of midges in the air in our marshes\u00a0can be mind-blowing. Here we see clouds of them, often called “midge tornadoes”, alongside the road at Bear River MBR. They concentrate in these visible vertical\u00a0columns but they’re really everywhere in the air and on the vegetation and most everything else. There were so many of them on this day that I couldn’t even get my camera to focus and everything looks slightly soft through the hordes of insects. Since I have to shoot with my window down there are times\u00a0when I can barely see the color of the headliner in my pickup for all the midges crawling all over it. When one gets in your eye they can put you out of commission as a photographer (and driver) for some time.<\/p>\n
The good news is that they don’t bite and they provide a sumptuous bounty for many of our birds near the Great Salt Lake.<\/p>\n
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![\"yellow-headed](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/yellow-headed-blackbird-5946-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n Yellow-headed Blackbirds take advantage of the food source using an interesting and energy-efficient technique. They simply perch on the cattails or phragmites and wait for one of the midges to get close enough to its head so that the bird can\u00a0easily snag the insect out of the air with very little effort. I photographed this one five days ago at Bear River with its eye on the (out of focus)\u00a0midge at lower right.<\/p>\n I often try to time my shots to catch the actual snagging process but it isn’t easy because it’s very quick and difficult to anticipate since I often can’t see the midge through my lens.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/7.1, 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 I was a split-second late with this one but we can see the midge in the bird’s mouth.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A huge crop (4.5% of the original image)\u00a0of the previous\u00a0photo gives us a better look at the midge.<\/p>\n There are many species of midges and a few of them are blood-suckers, potentially spreading disease, but thankfully those around here are innocuous and a great food source for birds. To the\u00a0uninitiated they resemble mosquitos and can be quite intimidating. First time visitors to Bear River MBR can often hardly wait to get off the auto tour loop and back to “civilization”.<\/p>\n And that’s ok with me. The less traffic on\u00a0the loop road the better…<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tis the season for midges in northern Utah.<\/p>\n![\"yellow-headed](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/yellow-headed-blackbird-5930-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"yellow-headed](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/yellow-headed-blackbird-5930-big-crop-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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