![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/great-blue-heron-2372-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"great-blue-heron-2372-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nPlus a potential\u00a0bump in the road for Feathered Photography.<\/p>\n
Carp are the predominant fish species at Farmington Bay WMA so they’re a primary source of food for a variety of birds including some\u00a0shorebirds, waders and even raptors during winter. And one of the things that makes them so useful as a food source is their size range. Young carp are small but adults can be very large and generally smaller birds eat smaller fish and larger birds prey on bigger fish so one species of\u00a0fish serves a large variety of hungry\u00a0birds.<\/p>\n
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1\/2000, 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 But some individual birds have their own preferences that don’t necessarily follow that pattern. I’ve seen Great Blue Herons swallow carp that were so huge that it was a miracle they were able to get it down the hatch but this one preferred much more\u00a0petite meals. During the 35 minutes I spent with this heron four days ago it caught and swallowed eleven fish and all of them were tiny like this one. To me those fish seemed so small they were hardly worth the effort. I presume many of them were\u00a0young carp.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, 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 But in February at Farmington food opportunities change when refuge personnel drain many of the canals and ponds in an effort to kill the adult carp that cause so much damage to the wetlands. Large dead carp litter the ponds and stream beds and a variety of birds take advantage of the situation. Yesterday I photographed\u00a0this American Crow while it was feeding on a large sun-bleached carp. Gulls gorge themselves and some birds that we don’t normally think as fish-eaters also take advantage of the situation, especially when winters are unusually cold – among them Northern Harriers, American Coots and even some\u00a0passerines like Song Sparrows.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, 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 But Farmington is most famous for\u00a0its Bald Eagles that feed on dead carp during late\u00a0winter. In some years past there’s been hundreds of eagles feeding on dead carp but in\u00a0recent years their numbers have been much reduced and most of\u00a0 them have stayed in remote areas of the refuge where they’re unavailable to bird lovers and photographers. I photographed this one yesterday\u00a0while it was far away\u00a0so the image is of poor quality but as you can see they continue to be attracted\u00a0to the dead carp.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, f\/8, ISO 500, Canon 40D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n In years past there has been so many eagles at Farmington competing for\u00a0carp that they would often strip the fish right down to the bones and then fight over their skeletons.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1600, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS\u00a0USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Competition was so fierce among eagles and gulls\u00a0that eagles would sometimes take to the air with their prize and eat it on the fly.<\/p>\n I saw more eagles at Farmington yesterday than I’ve seen so far this year but their numbers still don’t compare to past years (far from it)\u00a0and none of them were particularly close and available for photography or close-up viewing.<\/p>\n But they’re there and so were photographers and bird-lovers by the droves, hoping to get lucky with a close fly-by. It didn’t happen to me but you never know…<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n Note: Over the weekend I came down with a nasty case of shingles and to be perfectly frank I feel like shit. I never did have the shingles vaccination because a medication I take sporadically but\u00a0often precludes it\u00a0so now I’m paying the price and it’s a big one.<\/em><\/p>\n I mention it here because unless I start to feel better soon there may be days when I don’t publish a post\u00a0to Feathered Photography.\u00a0That may happen often or not at all – at this point I just don’t know. It isn’t my style to whine publicly about my health challenges but I thought I should give readers a heads up in case you don’t hear from Feathered Photography for a while.<\/em><\/p>\n Get your shingles vaccination, especially if you’re 60 or older!!!<\/em><\/p>\n Addendum: If you haven’t yet been vaccinated I strongly suggest you read the comment below from “Kiersten”. Kiersten is a pharmacist and she has some very interesting things to say about the new shingles vaccine.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Plus a potential bump in the road for Feathered Photography.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/american-crow-2888-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-crow-2888-ron-dudley\\"")
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