{"id":53390,"date":"2017-11-09T06:03:56","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T13:03:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=53390"},"modified":"2017-11-09T06:14:46","modified_gmt":"2017-11-09T13:14:46","slug":"antelope-island-potpourri-from-yesterday-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/11\/09\/antelope-island-potpourri-from-yesterday-morning\/","title":{"rendered":"Antelope Island Potpourri From Yesterday Morning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Including an American Goldfinch, a Red-winged Blackbird and a Prairie Falcon in flight.<\/p>\n<p>Some of these\u00a0images are far from my best but I believe each one has something of interest to offer.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"53391\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/11\/09\/antelope-island-potpourri-from-yesterday-morning\/american-goldfinch-1122-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/american-goldfinch-1122-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,643\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"6.3","credit":"RON DUDLEY","camera":"Canon EOS 7D Mark II","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1510132867","copyright":"","focal_length":"700","iso":"640","shutter_speed":"0.00025","title":"","orientation":"1"}\" data-image-title=\"american goldfinch 1122 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/american-goldfinch-1122-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/american-goldfinch-1122-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-53391 size-full\" title=\"american-goldfinch-1122-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/american-goldfinch-1122-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/american-goldfinch-1122-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/american-goldfinch-1122-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/american-goldfinch-1122-ron-dudley-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/american-goldfinch-1122-ron-dudley-150x107.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/american-goldfinch-1122-ron-dudley-400x286.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>1\/4000, 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<p>I rarely post goldfinches to my blog but yesterday morning\u00a0they were one of the few species still feeding on the sunflowers on the island (along with a few blackbirds). I liked this takeoff posture partly because of the combination of the\u00a0position of the feet and the direction of the birds stare which for me both imply that the goldfinch is attempting to half-walk and\u00a0half-fly along\u00a0the curved stem below it.\u00a0It wasn’t but it still\u00a0amuses me for some reason.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"53399\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/11\/09\/antelope-island-potpourri-from-yesterday-morning\/red-winged-blackbird-1629b-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/red-winged-blackbird-1629b-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,643\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"6.3","credit":"RON DUDLEY","camera":"Canon EOS 7D Mark II","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1510134305","copyright":"","focal_length":"700","iso":"640","shutter_speed":"0.00015625","title":"","orientation":"1"}\" data-image-title=\"red-winged blackbird 1629b ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/red-winged-blackbird-1629b-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/red-winged-blackbird-1629b-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-53399 size-full\" title=\"red-winged-blackbird-1629b-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/red-winged-blackbird-1629b-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/red-winged-blackbird-1629b-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/red-winged-blackbird-1629b-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/red-winged-blackbird-1629b-ron-dudley-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/red-winged-blackbird-1629b-ron-dudley-150x107.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/red-winged-blackbird-1629b-ron-dudley-400x286.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>1\/6400, 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<p>It isn’t terribly unusual for smaller songbirds to take off vertically but in my experience larger and heavier birds like this female Red-winged Blackbird seldom do. So I was quite disappointed to have clipped a wing when this one took off with her heavy body hanging almost straight down from her wings. I have a working\u00a0theory that this happens most often with heavier birds when they’re perched on unusually flimsy and flexible\u00a0perches that bend backwards when the bird attempts to push off from them.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever the reason for it I like the incongruity of this hanging\u00a0takeoff posture from such a\u00a0relatively heavy bird.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"53392\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/11\/09\/antelope-island-potpourri-from-yesterday-morning\/prairie-falcon-1024-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1024-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,643\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"6.3","credit":"RON DUDLEY","camera":"Canon EOS 7D Mark II","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1510130832","copyright":"","focal_length":"700","iso":"500","shutter_speed":"0.00025","title":"","orientation":"1"}\" data-image-title=\"prairie falcon 1024 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1024-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1024-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-53392 size-full\" title=\"prairie-falcon-1024-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1024-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1024-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1024-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1024-ron-dudley-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1024-ron-dudley-150x107.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1024-ron-dudley-400x286.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>1\/4000, f\/6.3, 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<p>My biggest frustration of the morning came from this Prairie Falcon that twice (count’em, twice!) stymied my attempts at quality photos of it. It let me approach relatively close (for a Prairie Falcon) as it was perched on a pole so I had high hopes for decent takeoff and flight shots but to get an angle I could shoot from out of my pickup I had to turn to my right for a couple of feet just before I came to a stop. As soon as the falcon saw the angle of my\u00a0barely moving pickup start to change it took off before I got my lens on it. I don’t like to flush birds, raptors especially, so I wish I’d stayed a little further away. Next time I will.<\/p>\n<p>But the falcon wasn’t through frustrating me yet.<\/p>\n<p>After taking off away from me it unexpectedly looped around and flew back\u00a0in my direction. It passed frame-fillingly close to my pickup but it was very soon after dawn and the bird was strongly sidelit so as often happens in these situations my flight shots were soft and I was unhappy with the side light.<\/p>\n<p>But I include this photo because of something that confuses me a little. In this and several other shots with the wings extended those wings look to be of equal length and symmetrical, just as one would expect.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"53403\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/11\/09\/antelope-island-potpourri-from-yesterday-morning\/prairie-falcon-1025-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1025-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,643\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"6.3","credit":"RON DUDLEY","camera":"Canon EOS 7D Mark II","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1510130832","copyright":"","focal_length":"700","iso":"500","shutter_speed":"0.0003125","title":"","orientation":"1"}\" data-image-title=\"prairie falcon 1025 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1025-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1025-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-53403 size-full\" title=\"prairie-falcon-1025-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1025-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1025-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1025-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1025-ron-dudley-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1025-ron-dudley-150x107.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1025-ron-dudley-400x286.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>1\/3200, f\/6.3, 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<p>But in other photos of the same bird (usually when its wings were curved instead of straight out) the two wings appear asymmetrical with the left one shorter than the right.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"53393\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/11\/09\/antelope-island-potpourri-from-yesterday-morning\/prairie-falcon-1034-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1034-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,643\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"6.3","credit":"RON DUDLEY","camera":"Canon EOS 7D Mark II","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1510130833","copyright":"","focal_length":"700","iso":"500","shutter_speed":"0.0002","title":"","orientation":"1"}\" data-image-title=\"prairie falcon 1034 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1034-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1034-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-53393 size-full\" title=\"prairie-falcon-1034-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1034-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1034-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1034-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1034-ron-dudley-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1034-ron-dudley-150x107.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1034-ron-dudley-400x286.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>1\/5000, f\/6.3, 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<p>When the bird banked and gave me better light underneath the image was a little\u00a0sharper so I got a better look at that left wing tip (naturally I cut off the other one). Several primaries at the tip of that wing appear to have been molted simultaneously and their replacements are still growing out but that’s apparently not the case on the right wing. If I’m interpreting what I’m seeing correctly\u00a0it surprises\u00a0me a little because it’s my understanding that raptors usually lose wing feathers simultaneously and symmetrically – the same feather on both wings at roughly the same time to give them balance in flight.<\/p>\n<p>Much ado about nothing I’m sure but I do tend to focus on things I don’t understand. I just wish I knew more about molting in raptors.<\/p>\n<p>Ron<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Including an American Goldfinch, a Red-winged Blackbird and a Prairie Falcon in flight.<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/11\/09\/antelope-island-potpourri-from-yesterday-morning\/\"><span>Continue reading<\/span><i class=\"crycon-right-dir\"><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1756,3,5,334,371,390],"tags":[1757,3659,146,254,3658,264,2738],"class_list":["post-53390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-goldfinch","category-antelope-island","category-bird-oddities","category-birds","category-prairie-falcons","category-red-winged-blackbirds","tag-american-goldfinch-2","tag-asymmetrical-molt","tag-flight","tag-prairie-falcon","tag-prairie-falcon-molt","tag-red-winged-blackbird","tag-takeoff"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/prairie-falcon-1034-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-dT8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}