Mt Lemmon AZ Images
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Visitor's Guide
    • Seasons
  • Birding Hotspots
    • Agua Caliente
    • Madera Canyon
    • Mt Lemmon
    • Portal, AZ
    • Sweetwater Wetlands
    • Texas Coast
    • White Water Draw
  • Birds
    • Acorn Woodpecker
    • American Bittern
    • American Coot
    • American Kestrel
    • American Robin
    • Arizona Woodpecker
    • Ash-throated Flycatcher
    • Black and White Warbler
    • Black-crowned Night-Heron
    • Black Phoebe
    • Black-throated Sparrow
    • Cactus Wren
    • Cedar Waxwing
    • Chihuahuan Raven
    • Common Raven
    • Cooper's Hawk
    • Crested Caracara
    • Curve-billed Thrasher
    • Elf Owl
    • Gambel's Quail
    • Gila Woodpecker
    • Great Blue Heron
    • Great Horned Owl
    • Green-tailed Towhee
    • Hooded Oriole
    • House Finch
    • Ladder-backed Woodpecker
    • Lazuli Bunting
    • Lesser Goldfinch
    • Northern Cardinal
    • Northern Flicker
    • Northern Mockingbird
    • Northern Shoveler
    • Phainopepla
    • Pied-billed Grebe
    • Plumbeous Vireo
    • Red-naped Sapsucker
    • Red-tailed Hawk
    • Rufous Hummingbird
    • Sandhill Crane
    • Sulfur-bellied Flycatcher
    • Verdin
    • Vermilion Flycatcher
    • White-crowned Sparrow
    • White-winged Dove
    • Williamson's Sapsucker
    • Yellow-rumped Warbler
  • About
  • Contact
  • Parting Shots
  • Member Content

Journal
(Blog)



Fast Food for a Phainopepla Hatchling: Entree and Dessert (with "two scoops") in 10 seconds

4/7/2019

1 Comment

 
Picture

If you looked at my blog post from April 2nd, you may recall that the last entry was a Phainopepla Nest at Agua Caliente on Roger Road.   Above is a photo of mamma Phainopepla sitting on her nest late in the afternoon of  Sunday March 31st, when the chick or chicks had already hatched.   She has been most considerate and built the nest at eye level, albeit very shrewdly deep in the mesquite to make it both hard to see and difficult for predators to attack. And, yes there are pesky branches between my camera lens and the nest.  

On Thursday April 4th I returned.  I waited patiently, with a good view of one hatchling, below.  The stage was set, all I needed was for the action to begin. 

Picture

I spotted the mother on an adjacent tree branch above the nest.  Reasoning that she was returning with food for her chick, I got focused on the nest and began to shoot.  The image above was shot at 10:58 and 11 seconds, the next 5 images were all shot within  one second, 10:58:12 (the camera does not record fractions of a second).  The last image in this post was shot at 10:58:21, or in other words,  this whole feeding sequence took 10 seconds.  When was the last time you fed the kids in 10 seconds? 

Picture

Above and below we see the mother feeding insects to her chick, with a pesky twig in the foreground. 

Picture

Picture

Picture

Picture

She got that meal down quickly. All images shot with a Canon 7D Mk II, which can capture 10 frames/second, with some slowing for the time required to fill the camera buffer and move images to the card.  So, 10 frames/second in bursts, with some slowing as the buffer fills. 

Below, mom sizes up her offspring to be sure that everything went down OK. 

Picture

But, there is more.  Hack, hack, here comes a berry!

Picture

Picture

Picture

Insects provide protein for a growing bird, but the Phainopepla supplements what it captures on the wing along with berries, in this case an unripened mistletoe berry (Jeff Babson, personal communication).  The berries are held in the mother's crop, an widened area of the esophagus which allows birds to get their food down fast, avoid predators, then eat at leisure, or in this case, feed the family. 

Below, here comes dessert. 

Picture

Picture

Picture

Picture

Picture

But wait, there's more! 

Picture

Picture

Yahoo!  A second scoop (so to speak)!

Picture

Picture

Picture

Picture

That's it!  Entree and dessert (with two scoops) in 10 seconds.  Really fast food! 
("Yeah, I know you are still hungry, I'll bring more!")

That's all for now, more soon.
Happy trails! 

1 Comment
vlogging camera under 200 link
2/13/2020 12:01:08 am

Each will determine the durability of battery. Using energy-conserving steps can help you avoid troubles such as being out of batteries.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Henry Johnson, photographer and author of this site. For more detail, see About

    Categories

    All
    Agua Caliente Park
    Arizona Sonora Desert Museum
    Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
    AZ
    Back Yard Birding
    Bosque Del Apache
    Canoa Ranch
    Cape May
    Catalina State Park
    Fort Lowell Park
    Ft. Huachuca
    Hereford
    Madera Canyon
    Mt Lemmon
    Oracle-state-park
    Oregon
    Panama
    Patagonia
    Portal AZ
    Ramsey Canyon
    Reid Park
    Sabino Canyon
    San Pedro River
    Santa Cruz Flats
    Sierra Vista
    Sweetwater Wetlands
    Texas Coast
    Tubac
    Tucson Audubon Festival
    Tucson Mountain Park
    White Water Draw

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    February 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    September 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    March 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Visitor's Guide
    • Seasons
  • Birding Hotspots
    • Agua Caliente
    • Madera Canyon
    • Mt Lemmon
    • Portal, AZ
    • Sweetwater Wetlands
    • Texas Coast
    • White Water Draw
  • Birds
    • Acorn Woodpecker
    • American Bittern
    • American Coot
    • American Kestrel
    • American Robin
    • Arizona Woodpecker
    • Ash-throated Flycatcher
    • Black and White Warbler
    • Black-crowned Night-Heron
    • Black Phoebe
    • Black-throated Sparrow
    • Cactus Wren
    • Cedar Waxwing
    • Chihuahuan Raven
    • Common Raven
    • Cooper's Hawk
    • Crested Caracara
    • Curve-billed Thrasher
    • Elf Owl
    • Gambel's Quail
    • Gila Woodpecker
    • Great Blue Heron
    • Great Horned Owl
    • Green-tailed Towhee
    • Hooded Oriole
    • House Finch
    • Ladder-backed Woodpecker
    • Lazuli Bunting
    • Lesser Goldfinch
    • Northern Cardinal
    • Northern Flicker
    • Northern Mockingbird
    • Northern Shoveler
    • Phainopepla
    • Pied-billed Grebe
    • Plumbeous Vireo
    • Red-naped Sapsucker
    • Red-tailed Hawk
    • Rufous Hummingbird
    • Sandhill Crane
    • Sulfur-bellied Flycatcher
    • Verdin
    • Vermilion Flycatcher
    • White-crowned Sparrow
    • White-winged Dove
    • Williamson's Sapsucker
    • Yellow-rumped Warbler
  • About
  • Contact
  • Parting Shots
  • Member Content