{"id":82954,"date":"2020-03-18T05:34:47","date_gmt":"2020-03-18T11:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=82954"},"modified":"2020-03-18T09:35:38","modified_gmt":"2020-03-18T15:35:38","slug":"western-meadowlark-and-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/18\/western-meadowlark-and-friend\/","title":{"rendered":"Burrowing Owl And Friend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Something a little different from me today. Actually, a lot<\/em> different.<\/p>\n

I often complain about birds that photobomb my images. It typically happens with waterfowl or wading birds on a pond and coots are notorious as photobombers but any species can do the dirty deed. It always seems to happen when the subject bird is doing something particularly interesting and the photobombing bird in the background or foreground usually ruins the shot because it’s so distracting.<\/p>\n

But I love this photobombing meadowlark.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/3200, f\/7.1, 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

In July three summers ago I had been photographing this Burrowing Owl as it hopscotched from perch to perch. The owl was obviously in hunting mode and looking for prey below each perch.<\/p>\n

But when the owl landed on this sagebrush the meadowlark took great exception to its presence in what was apparently its territory and flew in and landed on another sagebrush about 2′ behind the owl. From this vantage point the meadowlark put up quite a ruckus as it repeatedly sounded its “chupp” alarm call, which is what it’s doing here.<\/p>\n

That poor owl had its hands (wings) full as it alternately kept an eye on me in one direction, the annoying meadowlark directly behind it and watched for prey below the perch. I have photos of it looking in all three directions.<\/p>\n

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As I said above I virtually never like my images that have been photobombed by another bird so initially I was surprised that I liked this one. Eventually I decided the reason it appeals to me is because it’s so highly representative of one of my favorite habitats, the sagebrush steppe. It includes two signature bird species of that habitat and the namesake sagebrush is green and attractive (it isn’t always).<\/p>\n

And it helps that the meadowlark is placed so well in the frame. If it had intersected the owl the meadowlark would only have annoyed me.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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Notes:<\/em><\/p>\n