{"id":90228,"date":"2020-10-09T05:43:55","date_gmt":"2020-10-09T11:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=90228"},"modified":"2020-10-09T10:06:36","modified_gmt":"2020-10-09T16:06:36","slug":"woodhouses-scrub-jay-and-a-wild-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/10\/09\/woodhouses-scrub-jay-and-a-wild-turkey\/","title":{"rendered":"Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay And A Wild Turkey"},"content":{"rendered":"

The two birds that kept me from being skunked yesterday morning.<\/p>\n

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1\/4000, f\/5.6, 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

Scrub jays have been one of my more difficult subjects over the years, to the point of being a near-nemesis. In some suburban neighborhoods along the east bench of the Wasatch Mountains they can be relatively tame and easy to approach but in the more natural areas that I haunt they’re incredibly spooky. Cornell’s Birds of the World refers to them as “reclusive” for very good reason.<\/p>\n

But yesterday morning in the west desert mountains this one let its guard down and landed reasonably close to me for several seconds before it realized its error and flew the coop. I had a good chance for a takeoff or flight shot but I stopped firing a burst at exactly the wrong time and missed it.<\/p>\n

In other words the bird faked me out.<\/p>\n

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If you prefer here’s a vertical composition of the same image.<\/p>\n

For years many of my readers would have known this bird as the Western Scrub Jay but in 2016 the species was split into the Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay and the California Scrub Jay.<\/p>\n

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1\/1600, f\/5, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 263 mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

Earlier yesterday morning I was at the Douglas Fir tree where I photographed a male Red-breasted Nuthatch<\/a><\/span><\/span> a few days ago. The nuthatch never showed up but this Wild Turkey put in an unexpected appearance when it walked by very close to the tree. In this photo last year’s fallen cones can be seen on the ground.<\/p>\n

The turkey was so close this shot was taken with my ‘baby lens’ at only 263 mm.<\/p>\n

Other than these two birds yesterday morning was a bust. That’s bird photography for you.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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

One of the reasons birds are so scarce right now is because it’s been so incredibly dry for months. I realize that I live in a desert but this is getting ridiculous. Yesterday the incredibly bumpy ride on the dirt\/gravel road up into the mountains and back was more dusty than I’ve ever seen it.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

In my post two days ago I included a photo of the dusty instrument panel of my pickup. In his comment on that post Lyle Anderson chided me for having such a dirty pickup.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n