![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/warbling-vireo-6856-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"warbling-vireo-6856-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nYesterday morning in the Wasatch Mountains I was only able to get\u00a0a\u00a0single\u00a0quality image of a bird and this is it. But it’s a\u00a0species I’ve only\u00a0photographed once in the past so I was\u00a0delighted to get it, especially since I like the warm fall\u00a0background colors as much as I do.<\/p>\n
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1\/4000, f\/5.6, ISO 1600, 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 A Warbling Vireo in my viewfinder is almost as unusual as a whale in the Great Salt Lake but this one landed on an\u00a0unobstructed perch for a very short time and I got one sharp shot with a pose I like. I’m particularly enamored by that background because I love the softness of both the\u00a0fall colors (some trees in the area\u00a0are already turning) and the bokeh. That lovely bokeh is one of the things my lens is known for.<\/p>\n The\u00a0reason I only got one sharp shot was because of a rookie mistake. When the vireo landed here I was concentrating on another bird and I knew this one would probably only be there or hold that pose\u00a0for a heartbeat.\u00a0In my excitement I pushed the focus button a little too soon so it locked on to something else at first and wouldn’t let go. By the time I was able to refocus on the bird this was the only sharp shot I got before the vireo…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n took off 1\/10th of a second later. It’s obviously a garbage shot but I decided to show you what happened in\u00a0the next frame in the burst. No copyright watermark here, so if you want it it’s yours but I wouldn’t bother unless you have a fetish for sharp vireo feet.<\/p>\n This may have been one of my last visits to the “porcupine bush”. The serviceberries are past their prime, nearly all the Yellow Warblers are gone now and few other birds are feeding there.\u00a0About the\u00a0only draw that\u00a0bush has for me now is the fact that the dead porcupine no longer stinks.<\/p>\n But a little further up the road potential gold mines await the bird photographer in the form of ripening\u00a0elderberries.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Many of the numerous elderberries are just about to ripen up. Don’t they look good enough to eat?<\/p>\n I took this photo a little later the same morning and there were dozens of other\u00a0berry clusters on the same small bush (about the size of a typical home Christmas tree). And there are many other elderberry bushes in the area, most of them larger than this one.<\/p>\n When these darkest berries turn a deep purple-black and become even a little more plump they’ll be heavy enough that many of\u00a0the clusters\u00a0will hang almost upside down and that’s when they’ll be fully ripe for birds and for humans, although I hope birds get every last one of them.<\/p>\n It won’t be long…<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Note: For anyone who may be wondering about my choice of title for this post (in this day and age probably no one but I thought I’d cover my bases) here’s how Wikipedia defines “food porn”: <\/em><\/p>\n Yes, I thought those berries looked that good. Almost but not quite good enough to substitute for my chocolate donut. But I always have milk with me to go with my donut and that makes me think of berries and cream – maybe the birds will only get most of them…<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Yesterday morning in the Wasatch Mountains I was only able to get a single quality image of a bird and this is it. But it’s a species I’ve only photographed once in the past so I was delighted to get it, especially since I like the warm fall background colors as much as I do.<\/p>\n\n
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