![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/northern-mockingbird-3317-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"northern-mockingbird-3317-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nYesterday I had one of those mornings that bird photographers usually only dream about.<\/p>\n
It included a variety of up close and cooperative birds of several species, colorful and\u00a0attractive natural perches, fascinating bird\u00a0behaviors, lovely and warm morning light,\u00a0perfect weather, good company, plenty of coffee, a chocolate donut and iced milk to wash it down. And it all took place in a remote and natural\u00a0setting with no one else for miles around. Short of having an Ivory-billed Woodpecker in my viewfinder this bird photographer couldn’t have asked for anything more.<\/p>\n
The Northern Mockingbird\u00a0photo below\u00a0is only a teaser, for reasons I’ll explain at the end of the post.<\/p>\n
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1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II,\u00a0Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n The perch is a wild rose that was\u00a0loaded with colorful rose hips and the mockingbird landed in the perfect spot to give me a great view of the entire bird. And it was close, so close that this image is full frame (uncropped). I don’t believe I’ve ever been able to get\u00a0full frame photos of a mockingbird before because unlike some parts of the country they’re skittish and shy around here. And that’s\u00a0when you can find them at all.<\/p>\n It’s nice to have greenery in the background\u00a0instead of\u00a0the dead, tan grass I usually get this time of year. And I was fortunate that the very long branch on the right side of the frame is\u00a0close enough\u00a0to being in the same plane as the bird that both the branch and the berries are sharp. If they hadn’t been I’d have been quite disappointed.<\/p>\n So why is this only a teaser post? I spent 2 hours and 43 minutes at this spot and barely had to move my pickup while taking 1934 photos exclusively of birds. Needless to say I haven’t even seen\u00a0some of those images yet, much less had the time to review, cull and eventually process many of\u00a0those I keep.<\/p>\n But\u00a0you can count on it – you’ll be seeing more of them in the\u00a0future.\u00a0In the meantime my work is cut out for me.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yesterday I had one of those mornings that bird photographers usually only dream about.<\/p>\n