{"id":61515,"date":"2019-11-19T06:19:58","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T13:19:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=61515"},"modified":"2024-11-16T13:37:56","modified_gmt":"2024-11-16T19:37:56","slug":"focusing-on-photographing-foraging-mountain-chickadees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/11\/19\/focusing-on-photographing-foraging-mountain-chickadees\/","title":{"rendered":"Focusing On Photographing Foraging Mountain Chickadees"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MountainMountain Chickadee hanging on a Douglas Fir cone \u2013 Nikon D500, f6.3, 1\/1000, ISO 500, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Two mornings ago a small flock of Mountain Chickadees came in to forage on the seeds in some Douglas Fir trees and I had fun trying to keep up with the small dynamos. Since there were several chickadees foraging, feeding, flying in and out it was often difficult to pick which of them to focus on.<\/p>\n

\"MountainMountain Chickadee checking out a fir cone \u2013 Nikon D500, f6.3, 1\/1600, ISO 500, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes I picked the closest chickadee to photograph simply because they were there. Some times I picked one where I could see slivers of blue sky behind the trees.<\/p>\n

\"MountainMountain Chickadee hanging onto a juniper with a seed in its bill \u2013 Nikon D500, f6.3, 1\/1600, ISO 500, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Or I tracked where they flew to and in this case it was a nearby juniper that the Mountain Chickadee hung onto while it ate the seed of the fir.<\/p>\n

\"ForagingForaging Mountain Chickadee hanging on a fir cone \u2013 Nikon D500, f6.3, 1\/2000, ISO 500, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Mostly though, I photographed the chickadees I could get in my viewfinder quickly enough to lock focus on them before they flew to another branch or tree.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult Mountain Chickadee looking for seeds in a fir cone \u2013 Nikon D500, f6.3, 1\/2000, ISO 500, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I took hundreds of photos that are going to end up in my delete bin because the birds were turned away from me, weren’t quite in focus or didn’t have a catch light in the eyes of the chickadees but I did get a few jewels.<\/p>\n

\"MountainMountain Chickadee eating a seed \u2013 Nikon D500, f6.3, 1\/2000, ISO 500, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of the jewels showed the Mountain Chickadees eating the seeds that they were so actively foraging for.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult Mountain Chickadee hanging onto a fir cone \u2013 Nikon D500, f6.3, 1\/2000, ISO 500, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

While others showed the chickadees looking towards me as if they were checking me out to see if I presented any danger to them as they moved around the fir trees looking for seeds to eat.<\/p>\n

\"MountainMountain Chickadee grasping a Douglas Fir cone \u2013 Nikon D500, f6.3, 1\/2500, ISO 500, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

All of these images show the Mountain Chickadees doing what they naturally do in the wild and while I find them amusing at times as I observe and photograph them, they are simply but seriously going about their lives.<\/p>\n

Me? I’m just happy to be a part of their lives for a few moments in time.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Mountain Chickadee photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two mornings ago a small flock of Mountain Chickadees came in to forage on the seeds in some Douglas Fir trees and I had fun trying to keep up with the small dynamos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":136980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,2782,358,26,1314],"tags":[6577,3940,6273,6274,6879,6877,4040,8009,8302,4136,5370,6454,3914,2780,4069,8301,8300,2779,6878,7707,7706,2135,10452,4076],"class_list":["post-61515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-mountain-chickadees","category-tooele-county","category-utah","category-west-desert-utah","tag-branches","tag-canyon","tag-chickadee","tag-chickadees","tag-cones","tag-douglas-fir","tag-feeding","tag-fir","tag-focusing","tag-foraging","tag-forest","tag-hanging","tag-juniper","tag-mountain-chickadee","tag-mountains","tag-photograph","tag-photographing","tag-poecile-gambeli","tag-pseudotsuga-menziesii","tag-pseudotsuga-menziesii-var-glauca","tag-rocky-mountain-douglas-fir","tag-seeds","tag-sky-island-mountains","tag-trees"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/mountain-chickadee-foraging-mia-mcpherson-2929.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-g0b","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":61289,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/11\/08\/mountain-chickadees-are-fun-but-challenging-to-photograph\/","url_meta":{"origin":61515,"position":0},"title":"Mountain 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