![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/northern-flicker-9293b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"northern-flicker-9293b-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nIt was a round trip journey so it must have consumed more energy than she obtained from the snack.<\/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 Yesterday morning I spotted this female Northern Flicker landing near the top of a utility pole next to Glover Pond in Farmington. I’m not much of a fan of photographing birds on poles but flickers are among my most difficult subjects to approach and parts of the pole looked reasonably natural so when she allowed me to get fairly close I went for the gusto anyway. She was side-lit so she had to turn her head just right to get any light on her face but I still got several shots I like and I was able to document her largely futile attempt at finding food.<\/p>\n She started out near the top of the pole where I had blue sky background but as she descended straight down in her quest for insects in the cracks in the wood her face was shaded most of the time. This first shot I got that I like very much was taken when she was most of the way down so we’re beginning to see tall grasses in the background.<\/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 Now she’s very close to the ground with nothing but grasses in the background. As far as I could tell she didn’t find any insects on her long journey down the pole but when she was nearly at ground level she…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, 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 moved to the shady side of the pole and finally found a few ants which we see at the tip of her bill. From here she moved back to the sunny side of the pole and…<\/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 climbed all the way back to the top. This turned out to be my favorite shot in the series.<\/p>\n The last time I saw her she was on one of the pole’s crossbeams but there were wires in front of her so I left her and drove to nearby Eccles Wildlife Education Center where we visited briefly with our old friend and Center director Billy Fenimore. And then we headed for home.<\/p>\n I don’t post birds on poles often. But I’ve mentioned before that flickers around here that aren’t “city birds” are very difficult to get close to and my luck with them has generally been dismal. So when this bird didn’t fly off as I approached I couldn’t resist aiming my lens her way.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was a round trip journey so it must have consumed more energy than she obtained from the snack.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/northern-flicker-9340b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"northern-flicker-9340b-ron-dudley\\"")
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