![\"yellow-rumped-warbler-6449-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/yellow-rumped-warbler-6449-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nReaders know I despise culling images. I also have a strong tendency to procrastinate and that unfortunate combination meant that as of yesterday I had about 7,500 recent\u00a0photos to go through. The only thing that keeps me going while I’m doing it is the occasional\u00a0serendipitous\u00a0discovery – an image or series of images with redeeming qualities that I missed during my first pass through them.<\/p>\n
Such was the case yesterday. As I slogged through my culling chore I stumbled across a short Yellow-rumped Warbler feeding sequence that I\u00a0found interesting despite its obvious shortcomings (I wasn’t very close to the bird and there’s an aggravating branch in front of some of the action). I include that series below.<\/p>\n
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1\/6400, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n A couple of weeks ago I spent several days photographing Yellow-rumped Warblers in a park near my home. These migrating birds were using the tree as a staging area to fly out over a pond\u00a0under the tree to catch insects flying over the water. But this warbler showed me how opportunistic they can be when an unexpected\u00a0flying insect makes the mistake of flying just a little\u00a0too close to a hungry, perched bird.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/6400, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n Here the warbler has\u00a0spotted the insect and is setting up for the ambush (I actually think it was probably\u00a0two<\/em> mating insects but they were tiny and even when I blew the image up I couldn’t tell for sure…).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n When the “bugs” were close enough the warbler snagged them out of the air (coitus interruptus to the extreme…). It all happened so incredibly fast that I didn’t even know it had occurred until yesterday when I spotted the insects in this image with my finger already on the delete key. I find behaviors interesting enough that I’ll often keep images like these despite their flaws.<\/p>\n I’m fully aware that\u00a0some viewers aren’t particularly interested in mediocre behavioral images so…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/5000, f\/7.1, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u00a0include this photo as closing eye candy to hopefully make up for it. The\u00a0image appeals to me for its detail, colors, clean background (something I seldom got with these birds) and the long diagonal\u00a0perch that is just sharp enough along its entire length and isn’t too bright, as many of them were.<\/p>\n These\u00a0birds, one of\u00a0the last\u00a0warblers to migrate in the fall,\u00a0are now in their wintering grounds in the southern US, Mexico and Central America. I enjoyed them very much while they were here.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The only thing that keeps me going while I’m culling images is the occasional serendipitous surprise.<\/p>\n![\"yellow-rumped-warbler-6458-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/yellow-rumped-warbler-6458-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"yellow-rumped-warbler-6459-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/yellow-rumped-warbler-6459-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"yellow-rumped-warbler-5423-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/yellow-rumped-warbler-5423-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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