{"id":99458,"date":"2021-06-21T05:41:58","date_gmt":"2021-06-21T11:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=99458"},"modified":"2021-06-21T05:48:59","modified_gmt":"2021-06-21T11:48:59","slug":"loggerhead-shrike-with-a-wasp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/21\/loggerhead-shrike-with-a-wasp\/","title":{"rendered":"Loggerhead Shrike With A Wasp"},"content":{"rendered":"

It isn’t a yellowjacket, hornet or paper wasp but I still think it’s a wasp.<\/p>\n

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1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

I’m always interested in the prey items of the birds I photograph so when I found this Loggerhead Shrike on Antelope Island with an unusually-colored wasp in its bill it caught my attention.<\/p>\n

Like many birds with stinging prey the shrike was careful to grasp the wasp by its abdomen so the stinger couldn’t do its dirty deed. At one point the shrike was in danger of being stung so ‘he’ deliberately dropped it, at least I think it was deliberate, but he was able to retrieve it.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

The wasp was a pretty little thing but pretty or not I still don’t like’m.<\/p>\n

I’ve had my share of very unpleasant encounters with wasps like hornets and yellowjackets and just two days ago I had to destroy eight paper wasp nests hiding beneath the top railing of my wooden deck. It was a delicate operation and I discovered that even this old man with a bad back can still run pretty damn fast when it’s absolutely necessary.<\/p>\n

Yes I know, wasps are part of the natural scheme of things and they’re bird food but when I find them resident in my yard they’ve gotta go.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Notice the tomial tooth or “falcon tooth” on the upper bill of the shrike.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Tomial Tooth: n. A protrusion on the upper bill of some birds\u2014including falcons, kites, and shrikes\u2014reminiscent of a tooth. The \u201ctooth\u201d and the corresponding divot in the lower mandible allow the bill to act like a pair of shears, which may make it easier for the predators to sever the spinal cords of their vertebrate prey.”<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It isn’t a yellowjacket, hornet or paper wasp but I still think it’s a wasp.<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,334,392,346],"tags":[31,133,409,206,256,306,311,410],"class_list":["post-99458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island","category-birds","category-feeding-bird-behaviors","category-loggerhead-shrikes-shrikes-and-vireos","tag-antelope-island-2","tag-falcon-tooth","tag-lanius-ludovicianus","tag-loggerhead-shrike","tag-prey","tag-tomial-tooth","tag-utah-2","tag-wasp"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/loggerhead-shrike-4736-big-cropb-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-pSa","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}