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<\/p>\nPlus\u00a0yet another Willet mystery but this one involves shadows rather than behavior. I try to avoid posting the same species on consecutive days but I can only post what I shoot and lately that’s largely been Willets on Antelope Island.<\/p>\n
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1\/2000, f\/9, 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 Only minutes after sunrise yesterday morning\u00a0I found a pair of them perched on one of the Tintic Quartzite boulders the island is known for. I’m quite confident they were a mated pair because it’s breeding season and they were so close to each other for so long with no evident tension. In this species sexes are similar and even though females are slightly larger, in these poses\u00a0I can’t tell for sure which is\u00a0which so I won’t hazard a guess.<\/p>\n I believe this\u00a0was the first time I’ve been able to get a mated pair of Willets in the same photos so took a lot of shots of them over 8 minutes. But they were far from animated and they never gave me any pose variety so eventually I left them to look for other birds. One of my first bird photography mentors was Tom Webster on Nature Photographers Network and\u00a0his mantra was “Never leave birds to look for birds” so I felt a little\u00a0guilty about leaving but I did it anyway…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 214mm<\/em><\/p>\n When I came back 23 minutes later they were still\u00a0there and it didn’t look like they’d even twitched while I was gone because they were still on the same places on the boulder and in almost exactly\u00a0the same poses. Maybe they were stuffed birds, I dunno…<\/p>\n I grabbed my “baby lens” to take a few shots at a much shorter focal length to give readers\u00a0a different\u00a0perspective on the setting.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 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 I\u00a0maneuvered\u00a0slightly closer and at a different angle this time so I had difficulty fitting both birds into the frame so I concentrated on the Willet\u00a0on the right. They still weren’t doing much of anything interesting\u00a0so I took a chance and removed my teleconverter for possible flight shots. This time I made the right decision.<\/p>\n It’s funny how a Plain Jane bird like a Willet can transform itself into Cinderella simply by…<\/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, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n lifting its wings. I’ve always adored those flashy black and white wings when they take flight.<\/p>\n Ok, here’s the mystery. What in the world is\u00a0going on with that shadow of the bird on the rock???\u00a0The sun was low in the sky, behind me and to my left. The shadow of the bird’s tail seems to be\u00a0roughly where it should be but how in the hell\u00a0did the shadow of its feet get in front of the Willet? A good indicator of the actual\u00a0position of the sun is the shadow on the left wing cast by the right wing.\u00a0For me it just doesn’t compute! Think about it for a minute – am I missing something?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After pondering for longer than I care to admit I came up with a possible solution. The other Willet, which had been just out of frame to the left, took off in the same direction as this bird did and only a split second earlier. Perhaps the shadow we see is of the other bird?<\/p>\n But… if it is, why aren’t there shadows of this bird’s feet on the rock? After all, the toes of the right\u00a0foot\u00a0almost seem to be dragging on the rock so there should be shadows there.<\/p>\n It’s too damned early in the morning for me to conclusively\u00a0figure it out. I need more coffee first.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Plus yet another Willet mystery but this one involves shadows rather than behavior.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/willet-0165-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"willet-0165-ron-dudley\\"")
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