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1\/2000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Yesterday morning on Antelope Island I spent some time with this Western Meadowlark as\u00a0he foraged for food in the vegetation that’s now finally\u00a0greening up. Usually when a bird turns its back to me I don’t fire off any shots so I missed it when he used his bill to turn over the bison poop we see in front of the bird to the left. But he seemed to have found something\u00a0edible under the bison dropping so at that point I began to fire off a burst to see if I got lucky with something interesting.<\/p>\n Anyone who’s grown up on a farm knows that large animal droppings often have a host of invertebrate critters living\u00a0beneath them. Hungry meadowlarks know that too.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1600, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n When he stood more erect he seemed to be tugging hard\u00a0on something but at first I couldn’t see what it was.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n It was an earthworm. Here we see part of\u00a0it\u00a0(nearly parallel to the bird’s left leg) and\u00a0being stretched between the burrow that it desperately clung to and the pulling bill of the meadowlark,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n The bird pulled harder\u00a0on the worm…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n until it was stretched\u00a0as\u00a0thin and tight as a piano wire. Something had to give and something did.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n The end of the tightly\u00a0stretched worm finally popped out of the hole and when it did the release of all that stored energy twisted the bird to my right and gave me a perfect look at the\u00a0bird, the recoiling\u00a0worm and\u00a0the results of all that released tension.\u00a0For me this is the money shot – the one that finally tells the story that was more difficult to interpret in the previous images. And it’s the one that makes me smile.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/western-meadowlark-6828-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"western-meadowlark-6828-ron-dudley\\"")
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