![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/gray-catbird-4468-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"gray-catbird-4468-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nI think these berries look luscious. They aren’t…<\/p>\n
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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 For the last several weeks I’ve been photographing a variety of songbirds in a Wasatch Mountain canyon – Gray Catbirds among them. These birds are more shy and elusive than most of the rest but they do occasionally grab a berry or two from\u00a0a Black Twinberry Honeysuckle growing at the bottom of the\u00a0slope\u00a0below\u00a0where I sometimes park my pickup. They dive into the thick foliage where I can’t see them, grab a berry, and then they usually fly off with it immediately or consume it while buried in the bush,\u00a0leaving my shutter finger still itchy.<\/p>\n But two days ago this one paused for a few moments where I could see it and savored the berry for some time before it swallowed its snack.<\/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 Down the hatch.<\/p>\n The Black\u00a0Twinberry Honeysuckle is a native deciduous shrub\u00a0found in most of the western US, although it isn’t particularly common. Native Americans used it for a variety of purposes and I think it’s quite attractive, especially with\u00a0its ripe black berries. Others must agree because it’s sold in nurseries as an ornamental shrub.<\/p>\n The berries are utilized as food by bears and a few\u00a0bird species\u00a0and I think they look delicious. In fact more than once when I’ve been starving while photographing here I wanted to walk down the slope to the shrub and raid the berry patch.<\/p>\n It’s a good thing I didn’t because I’ve recently learned that they’re basically inedible because they’re so very bitter. I doubt they’d go well with my chocolate donut.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n PS – If you’re interested here’s a link to a photo of a Black Twinberry Honeysuckle<\/a> from the US Forest Service with a few of those black-beauty berries still attached, although it looks like many of them have already fallen off or been eaten by some hungry but ill-informed bird photographer….<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I think these berries look luscious. They aren’t…<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/gray-catbird-4475-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"gray-catbird-4475-ron-dudley\\"")
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