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<\/p>\nYesterday morning I had another supremely challenging session with the nest-building waxwings in the Wasatch Mountains.<\/p>\n
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1\/5000, 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 The nest they continue to build is deeply buried in this hawthorn tree – so effectively hidden that it took me two days to finally see part of\u00a0it, even though I knew exactly where it was (I could sometimes see partial birds moving around in it). The living part of the tree is so dense (there are dead parts too) that I was usually lucky to see even this much of a bird while they were perched in its vicinity. When they would bring in nesting material they nearly always took a straight shot into the nest and didn’t pause for a portrait.<\/p>\n They worked on the nest for the entire time I was there but reasonable shooting opportunities were slim to almost nonexistent. These photos were the best I could do.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, 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 Very rarely one came out into the open for a few seconds.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/5000, 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 Usually they came out of the nest like a shot and flew far away to gather\u00a0the next\u00a0load for the nest but twice one of them looked for nesting material on the ground where I could see it. Here the bird picked up this long twig (I’ve cropped the photo so we can see all of it) but eventually it was rejected.<\/p>\n At this point they were\u00a0lining the nest cup with softer grasses and they weren’t really interested in coarser materials like twigs and small sticks.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, 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 I caught this bird rousing. Normally I reject photos with annoying shadows on the bird but with these waxwings photographic success is relative…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, 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 This one was probably calling but I don’t remember hearing it at the time. Their calls are soft and difficult for me to hear. Interestingly, Cedar Waxwings do not sing, they only call.<\/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 This one looks like it’s calling but it isn’t. Just prior to this shot it was cleaning its bill on the perch and it opened its bill and raised its crest\u00a0when it finished.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, 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 This is one of\u00a0the very few times\u00a0a bird didn’t fly directly into the nest with its load. They would often carry massive amounts of soft grasses and sometimes there was so much of it that in flight parts of the load trailed behind the\u00a0end of their tail.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, 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 This was as close as I ever came to getting a clean shot of a waxwing yesterday. I like the well-lit bird against the very dark background even though it was a tricky exposure and I had to bring down some of the brights during processing.<\/p>\n It goes without saying that I never approached the nest or got out of my pickup while photographing these birds. They’re\u00a0acclimated to humans and their contraptions in the area and they continued to build their nest for the entire time I was there. One of the advantages of a long lens is not needing to get close to our subjects, especially while they’re nesting.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n Note to photographers: This series illustrates why I often use shutter speeds that seem excessive for the situation.<\/em> Notice that my SS varied wildly, from 1\/2000 to 1\/5000 second. That’s because I shoot in aperture priority, lighting was\u00a0extremely variable and one of my goals was flight\/takeoff shots that require fast SS’s to get the wings sharp. If I took the time to change my settings for different lighting situations\u00a0I’d often miss the shot completely.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/cedar-waxwing-0452-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"cedar-waxwing-0452-ron-dudley\\"")
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