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<\/p>\nI had several surprises in the Wasatch Mountains yesterday morning.<\/p>\n
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First I’ll have to set the stage for the one involving Cedar Waxwings.<\/p>\n
I believe this is the male (based on behavior only, I could be wrong) of the\u00a0mated pair\u00a0I photographed\u00a0some weeks ago as they were building their nest in a Hawthorn tree. He’s perched on a snag close to the nest tree – the nest is deeply buried in the Hawthorn below and behind him. The youngsters have hatched but are still naked or nearly so. It was a warm morning and another waxwing I suspect was his mate perched close to him some of the time – she probably had\u00a0left the nest for a brief respite as she often does. I couldn’t see what was going on with the presumed\u00a0female because even though she was sometimes\u00a0in plain sight I couldn’t see her most of the time while I had my lens on the male.<\/p>\n
Everything was calm up to this point.<\/p>\n
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But when the male\u00a0looked down and behind him toward the nest (which I’m sure he couldn’t actually see through all the leaves) he apparently saw something down there that instantly changed everything.<\/p>\n
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He twisted quickly on the perch and took off in the direction of the nest\u00a0but at first he didn’t go far at all.<\/p>\n
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In this next shot it might (or might not)\u00a0look like he’s landing on the looped twig but instead…<\/p>\n
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he dropped down\u00a0a few inches further and landed here (the looped twig is now at upper right). And he wasn’t a happy bird about something that was going on near the nest. I presume\u00a0the source of his excitement was another bird, possibly another waxwing, too close to the nest.\u00a0He severely scolded\u00a0whatever it was\u00a0down there and at one point…<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/cedar-waxwing-5508-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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he very nearly took off in that direction but at the last millisecond he changed his mind…<\/p>\n
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and\u00a0stayed on the perch as he continued to scold.<\/p>\n
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But when the waxwing eventually\u00a0took off in apparent pursuit of the threat I surmise from the direction of his gaze and his direction of takeoff that the potential threat had also taken off and his intent was to chase it.<\/p>\n
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In the last shot I got of the male he was\u00a0apparently still a\u00a0very ‘angry” bird. I don’t know what happened after this and I never did\u00a0see the actual\u00a0threat, assuming there\u00a0was one.<\/p>\n
I made several assumptions in telling this story but based on what I observed and photographed\u00a0this seems to be the most logical explanation.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/butterfly-5613-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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A little further down the road I photographed this beautiful butterfly on Musk Thistle. While I lived on\u00a0the Montana farm where I was raised we used to call this plant Canadian Thistle, among other less benign names because once it gets into your crops it’s very difficult to eradicate. I believe the butterfly might be a Great Spangled Fritillary but I can’t be sure.<\/p>\n
When I first approached the butterfly it was perched on a higher flower that didn’t have bright stems behind it but I had the limiter set wrong on my lens so I couldn’t focus on it. By the time I changed the setting it had moved down to this flower.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/peregrine-falcon-5386-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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But the first surprise I photographed yesterday morning was this far-away Peregrine Falcon on a cliff high above me (this image has been cropped severely). The first few photos I took of it caught it rousing.<\/p>\n
I very rarely see Peregrines in the mountains so this one caught me by surprise and I was delighted to see it up there.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/peregrine-falcon-5388-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"peregrine-falcon-5388-ron-dudley\\"")
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But the swallows were much less enthusiastic about\u00a0its presence. This tiny bird was screaming at the much larger falcon.<\/p>\n
All in all it was a good morning in the mountains.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
Note: Due to technical issues I haven’t included image techs and this post may be a little rough around the edges because I didn’t have time to fine tune it as\u00a0well as I usually do.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I had several surprises in the Wasatch Mountains yesterday morning.<\/p>\n