![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/causeway-smoke-9697-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"causeway-smoke-9697-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nAnd I’d appreciate some help from my readers in identifying the bird.<\/p>\n
Yesterday morning on Antelope Island I got one of my favorite shots ever\u00a0of a particular\u00a0species and it wasn’t even\u00a0a bird. But I very nearly didn’t go at all because of\u00a0smoke from wildfires, both local and out-of-state.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This is the scene that greeted me looking east from the\u00a0causeway\u00a0about ten minutes after the sun came up\u00a0over the nearby Wasatch Mountains. Several minutes earlier the sun had been a deep red but I couldn’t conveniently\u00a0stop then and take a photo. Believe it or not there’s big mountains back there and they’re close but you really have to strain to even get a hint of them (if you squint\u00a0they can barely be seen above the horizon on the left half of the frame). Our smoke is nowhere near as thick as\u00a0folks in states north of us are enduring but it’s too damned thick for me and I hate it.<\/p>\n
Needless to say I wasn’t\u00a0optimistic about\u00a0having enough light for the kind of photography I like to do.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1\/4000, 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 But by about 9 AM the sun was high enough in the sky that light didn’t have to penetrate so much smoke and I got a few shots of this juvenile sparrow on rabbitbrush (and in pretty good light)\u00a0that I can’t identify. Sparrow ID has never been a strong point for me so I’d appreciate some help if anyone out there has a clue what species this is. I dislike\u00a0placing any of my bird photos in my “Unknown ID” file…<\/p>\n Other than this sparrow I was skunked for birds. It’s been so hot that\u00a0we’re still in the August doldrums in early September and it almost seems like a bird wasteland around here, except in the marshes. Eventually I parked myself in front of some Rocky Mountain Bee Plant and hoped to get lucky with hummingbirds or sphinx moths.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1600, 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 Hummers eluded me but I did have some luck with the moths. This shot may become one of my favorites of a White-lined Sphinx Moth for a variety of reasons including the nice light and detail, the darker clean background, both moth and flower are sharp and I really like that partially deployed proboscis with pollen near its base.<\/p>\n And speaking of pollen – at the last minute I decided to include one last shot from my time at the bee plants\u00a0yesterday morning. It’s only a documentary image but I think it’ll serve its intended\u00a0purpose.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Some of the\u00a0bumblebees working the bee plant were huge and\u00a0they were\u00a0after both nectar and pollen. Just look at the size of those two packed\u00a0pollen baskets (corbiculae), especially the one on the\u00a0left leg.<\/p>\n After all the time I’ve spent at bee plants over the last few years I’m hugely impressed by the amount of critter activity going on around, on, in\u00a0and near them. Hummingbirds, honeybees, bumblebees, moths, butterflies,\u00a0and a variety of other insects that I’ve forgotten and\/or can’t identify seem to be either buzzing around them or crawling\u00a0over them constantly.<\/p>\n What a service to nature and to all of us they provide!<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n Notes:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/vesper-sparrow-8219-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"vesper-sparrow-8219-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n