![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/spotted-towhee-9109-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"spotted-towhee-9109-ron-dudley.\\"")
<\/p>\nLoading up on food before the storm.<\/p>\n
Ten days ago as a significant snowstorm approached I went down to the Jordan River looking for birds. My expectations were low because I’d checked out this particular spot many times over the years and never had any luck, not a single time. But it’s great habitat for songbirds so I gave it another shot.<\/p>\n
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1\/320, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n To my surprise it was loaded with birds. They were mostly White-crowned Sparrows with a few Dark-eyed Juncos mixed in but eventually a single male Spotted Towhee skulked out of the nearby bushes and joined in the feeding frenzy prior to the storm.<\/p>\n By the time this photo was taken snow was beginning to collect on the needles and leaves on the ground. Here a few falling snowflakes can be seen with one of them looking like it’s about to land on his head.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/400, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Just a few minutes later snow was beginning to collect on his tail and back. Looking for food while furiously scratching through all that debris is dirty work so he often had bits of plant material stuck to his plumage, as we see here on top of his head.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/400, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n I was actually closer to him than I wanted to be, even with my teleconverter removed. To provide readers a sense of how close I was this photo is full frame (uncropped). When you’re shooting at my focal lengths with the subject this close you have very little depth of field so about the only time I could get the entire bird sharp was when he was broadside to me.<\/p>\n In case you’re curious, that fuzzy whitish spot on his neck is an out of focus snowflake between me and the bird.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/250, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n A few minutes later snow was really building up on the ground and because of the darkening clouds my already slow shutter speed had dropped even more.<\/p>\n Photographing this towhee and the other sparrows in these conditions was an exercise in frustration. Because they were all so hyperactive and I was shooting at such slow shutter speeds most of my photos were much too soft. To make matters worse I kept cutting off or clipping the unusually long tail of the towhee. While I was there I took over 1100 photos but two days ago I trashed all but about three dozen of them. And some of those I kept were marginal..<\/p>\n But it sure was fun and I did manage to get a few keepers. I even learned a few things about photographing frenetic songbirds in such low light.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Note: I’m always impressed by how birds seem to anticipate weather conditions that will make it difficult to find food so they load up on it just prior to the storm. This snowstorm and another one that came in right on its heels had the ground covered with deep snow for several days, making food extremely difficult to find. Thankfully they’d filled their bellies just in time.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/spotted-towhee-9533-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"spotted-towhee-9533-ron-dudley\\"")
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