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<\/p>\nI look for Mountain Bluebirds nesting in natural cavities every spring but rarely find them.\u00a0Yesterday I finally did but the shooting was tough.<\/p>\n
Both the male and female were often very close, sometimes too close, but in those situations the shooting angle was typically too steep and the birds were side lit. The only shooting angle I could get on the cavity entrance was straight-on so I couldn’t get any side view exit shots, the kind I lust after most at nesting cavities. The entire area was thick with branches and twigs so most of the time I couldn’t get clear shots of the birds while they were perched.<\/p>\n
And then there were those damn shadows!<\/p>\n
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Shadows were everywhere and a few of them (very few) were actually kind of fun. Here we see the shadow of one of the bluebirds, probably the female, cast on their nest tree. The twig she’s on was one of their favorite perches while they kept an eye out for a marauding House Wren who kept trying to take over their cavity.<\/p>\n
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A vertical crop of a different photo shows how close their shadows always were to their nest cavity entrance when they were perched there. The actual perch was so close to the opening that the shadow moved very little in the long time I was there.<\/p>\n
So when I was trying to photograph the bluebirds at the cavity entrance the bottom of the twig’s shadow was always bad news..<\/p>\n
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Here’s an example of why. That damn shadow pretty much ruined every shot I took of the bluebirds at the cavity entrance.<\/p>\n
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Another example where the shadow is even more aggravating. Here we can actually see part of the female’s back inside the cavity.<\/p>\n
Out of the many photos I took of both birds at the cavity I managed to get a single one I liked where the shadow couldn’t be seen but ol’ Murph of Murphy’s law managed to put the kibosh on that one too. When this male took off he was in front of that aggravating shadow for a split second and my shutter clicked at just the right moment to catch him in a beautiful flight posture.<\/p>\n
I’ll bet you can guess what went wrong.<\/p>\n
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1\/1600, 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 Yup, I clipped the very tip of his right wing.<\/p>\n I still like the photo quite a lot. He’s sharp and he’s beautiful and the shadow on the tree of his little feet hanging down tickles me. But oh for a few more pixels on the left of the frame! Thanks a lot, Murph.<\/p>\n Despite all the shadows and other challenges I did manage to get a few pretty nice shots of these bluebirds so I’ll likely post some of them in the near future. But I have something like 1400 photos of them to review and hopefully cull before that can happen.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I’ll close with a little background on this nest cavity. I suspect it’s an old Northern Flicker cavity and I’ve been watching it for nesting activity for a couple of weeks now. Until yesterday the only bird I’ve seen near it was a single flicker over a week ago but yesterday morning the bluebirds were hauling nesting material into the cavity.<\/p>\n But the bluebirds are still duking it out with the House Wrens and another pair of bluebirds over nesting rights to the cavity. So far I haven’t seen any Tree Swallows attempting to join in the fray but that could happen too. It often does.<\/p>\n My next trip to the nest tree should reveal who the eventual winner was. I can’t help rooting for the bluebirds.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I look for Mountain Bluebirds nesting in natural cavities every spring but rarely find them. Yesterday I finally did but the shooting was tough.<\/p>\n