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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>\nI took this photo of a young Killdeer during my recent camping trip to Montana and Idaho as it scurried around in the vegetation next to a pond at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. I had a devil of a time getting sharp images of this\u00a0youngster because my active\u00a0focus point kept being distracted by the sprigs of vegetation and the overall fuzziness of the bird didn’t give me a “hard” target. Despite the slight softness I still like the photo, partly for personal reasons.<\/p>\n
Killdeer were the first bird I paid much attention to as a little kid. A creek ran through our Montana farm and as a young boy I spent countless delightful hours exploring several miles of it.\u00a0That and riding my horse Star were my primary forms of\u00a0entertainment back in those days (we didn’t have\u00a0that newfangled TV on the farm and thankfully even primitive\u00a0electronic games were still decades away).\u00a0Killdeer and meadowlarks are the main two birds I remember but it was the Killdeer that really got my attention because of their almost constant alarm call as I walked through their nesting territory and because of their famous broken wing act when my presence\u00a0really disturbed them.<\/p>\n
And in the spring and early summer I learned to watch\u00a0carefully for Killdeer chicks in the grasses. When they were very young those little fuzz balls absolutely delighted me, even as a “tough little farm boy” who emulated the macho attitudes of some of my older friends.<\/p>\n
Most of us who love birds have a “spark species”. Killdeer were definitely one of mine and this photo brought back some fond memories of the good old days – probably\u00a0at least in part\u00a0because it was taken in Montana.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Normally I wouldn’t post a photo like this.<\/p>\n