Yesterday morning my spark bird was re-sparked.
Late yesterday afternoon just before 5PM my internet provider announced that internet in my area would be going down for six hours, until 6 AM this morning, due to “scheduled maintenance” (with further inquiry I learned that a server was failing). I was busy last night with other things and I hadn’t even started on today’s post so I had no idea how I was going to get it done in time for publishing this morning.
Thankfully, internet came back on earlier than expected this morning but the overall result for Feathered Photography is a post with only one photo.
1/5000, f/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
Yesterday morning in the Wasatch Mountains I was absolutely delighted when this presumed male Green-tailed Towhee allowed me a fairly close approach while he was singing on territory. He continued to sing for a long time while I had him in my viewfinder so I got lots of ‘melodious’ photos of him, most looking much like this one.
Readers may recall that the Green-tailed Towhee was my “spark bird”. In the spring of 1969 while I was taking an ornithology class at the University of Utah the Green-tailed Towhee was my chosen field study species in a mountain canyon between Salt Lake City and Park City. I ended up spending many hours, over weeks, traipsing through the sagebrush with binoculars in hand as I looked for Green-tailed Towhees and attempted to study their nesting behavior.
Over time my field study evolved into a labor of love and it turned out that Green-tailed Towhees and that college class sparked my love of birds.
Today my field study area is gone, flooded by Little Dell Reservoir. More bird habitat lost in order to supply water for the thirsty residents of Salt Lake Valley. Including me.
But my love for birds remains.
Ron
PS – As of 6:30 this morning today’s post email still hasn’t been sent out to subscribers. At least I haven’t received mine. I don’t know what’s going on.
Update: The post email was finally sent out at 6:43, 45 minutes late.
OTHER USERS BOUGHT THIS!!!
[ source_link]
