Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Pic of the Day

     Black-necked Stilt – Farmington Bird Sanctuary; Farmington, Utah:  Driving through the Farmington Bird Sanctuary I saw this Black-necked Stilt aimlessly wandering in a circle.  I stopped, used my van as a blind and began shooting.  I took numerous images, but with each image I shot I was perplexed over the behavior.  There seem to be no reason for the aimless wandering. 
After about five minutes of shooting another stilt that I had notice feeding about a hundred feet away suddenly took flight and flew directly to the bird I was photographing.  As soon as the new stilt alighted the bird I had been photographing flew off and the new arrival walked about three feed into the nearby grasses and settled onto a nest.  The behavior of the bird I had been photographing now made sense. 
The male had been protecting the nest from potential predators while the female was away feeding.  


Nikon D7000, Nikkor 500mm f4 VRII, 1/250 @ f8

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