This post is\u00a0mostly about the insect hunting behaviors of Sage Thrashers and though many of the photos are far from perfect technically I think they adequately serve their intended purpose. All of them were taken yesterday morning on\u00a0Antelope Island. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/5000, f\/5.6, ISO 800, 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 Generally I find Sage Thrashers to be very difficult to approach – they’re wary, skittish and camera-shy. I was lucky to get close to this one (my pickup was largely hidden\u00a0behind a\u00a0large\u00a0bush between us)\u00a0as it was perched on one of the many light-colored Tintic Quartzite boulders that are common on the north end of the island.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 640, 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 But when they’re in hunting mode and trying to feed hungry chicks in the nest all that changes. They become bold to the point that they often ignore my presence in their frenetic pursuit of their insect prey. More than once they’ve actually run beneath my pickup as they pluck insects off the road.<\/p>\n Often\u00a0they use the tops of bushes and other vegetation to survey their surroundings for a likely spot to find insects before they plunge in after them. This one has chosen one of last year’s dead sunflower stalks.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 640, 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 But usually they’re hunting from atop or within their namesake plant – sagebrush (damn, that stuff smells wonderful right now, especially when one of your tires runs over a sprig of it on the edge of the road). Sage Thrashers are almost strictly\u00a0sagebrush obligates, especially during the breeding season.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 640, 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 Insect hunting in sagebrush isn’t easy. All the dead twigs at the base of the plant present a formidable barrier but that’s where many of the bugs are so the undaunted\u00a0thrashers pursue them there anyway.<\/p>\n Notice how extended and long this bird’s right leg is.\u00a0Shortly after this photo was taken the thrasher spotted something near where its right foot is and immediately it did a…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 640, 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 face plant into the spiky twigs in pursuit of whatever it was. I think it might have been successful because it lingered there for a couple of seconds but if so I never did see what it was. Watching these behaviors always reminds me of\u00a0how very useful their nictitating membranes must be in protecting their eyes in these situations.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 640, 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 Here the thrasher is struggling to get out of its twiggy enclosure so it can pursue other prey.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 640, 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 Bug hunting can be a frenetic and herky-jerky business. When they\u00a0see potential prey they often\u00a0have to move fast to catch it\u00a0but sometimes they abandon an attempt in mid-stride. This thrasher spotted something in front of it and\u00a0slightly to its\u00a0left so it…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/5000, f\/7.1, ISO 640, 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 started to take off after it but in the middle of the first flap with one leg up\u00a0it changed its mind and put on the brakes and returned to…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 640, 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 very nearly its original posture. Immediately after this shot was taken the bird took off for real but that photo was blurry.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/8000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, 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 This is what all the excitement is about – beaks full of big, juicy bugs for hungry chicks back at the nest. This thrasher appears to have found at least two fairly large grubs and perhaps a mosquito hawk (crane fly).<\/p>\n To say that the island is teeming with bugs right now is an understatement. If you’re near the water the air is filled with large non-biting midges whose bodies as they fly\u00a0in mass\u00a0often form visible black\u00a0tornadoes (we call them bugnadoes) – especially along the shoreline and the causeway road. At times massive numbers of brine flies also cover the ground near the shore. If you’re further inland the problem is hordes of tiny biting gnats or “no-seeums”\u00a0(really just another type of much smaller midge). And then there’s the mosquitoes…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, 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 For me photos like this one represent the “bugginess” of the island quite well. This Western Meadowlark had a mouthful of grubs for its chicks (believe it or not it was singing enthusiastically with its mouth full – not sure how it did that…) and the air around it was filled with midges (the larger kind that don’t bite). This time of year it’s often very difficult to get bird photos where you don’t feel tempted to clone out hundreds of tiny black specks from your images.<\/p>\n And fair warning – if you visit the island this time of year you’re going to pay the biting gnat price. Those little bastards are absolutely miserable and there’s very little you can do about them. Bug juice is largely ineffective on them and though fine-mesh mosquito\u00a0netting around your head can be effective in keeping them at bay I find them\u00a0uncomfortable and impractical for photography.<\/p>\n These tiny devils are different from mosquitos in their method of delivering misery – they don’t inject you with a proboscis. They have four little cutters inside their mouth that slice your skin open and then they spit\u00a0anticoagulant-loaded saliva on the wound to keep it from clotting and then they\u00a0suck\u00a0up the bloody juices. For most people the\u00a0“bites” are worse than mosquito bites (they turn red, burn, itch and sometimes “weep” for days) and they can take up to a week to heal.<\/p>\n But never fear – once temps reach the 90’s\u00a0the gnats will\u00a0mostly disappear. Bring on the heat!<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/sage-thrasher-8493-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"sage-thrasher-8493-ron-dudley\\"")
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