Autumn Loggerhead Shrike

Autumn Loggerhead Shrike perched on Fragrant Sumac – Nikon D500, f9, 1/1000, ISO 500, +1.0 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

I took my newly refurbished Nikon D500 with its brand new shutter assembly out into the field yesterday and ran it through it paces. The first birds I photographed with it were Wild Turkeys. During my session with the turkeys I had to work on getting the diopter for my viewfinder set right because it had been changed by someone at the Nikon service facility. Those turkeys were a blurry mess through the viewfinder until I got my diopter set correctly for my eyes. After getting the diopter sorted I was able to focus on photographing the birds that I found.

This adult Loggerhead Shrike perched on a Fragrant Sumac was among the birds that I found yesterday morning way up in northern Utah. The first time I found this shrike I didn’t have a good light angle on the bird and even though I took photos of it then I wasn’t happy with the quality of the resulting images.

When I found the shrike the second time the sun had moved in the sky and the light angle was slightly better. The shrike was also closer to me during the second session with it which allowed me to take frame filling images of this masked, mostly gray and white bird against the sky. The warm toned, fall colored leaves of the sumac added a nice splash of autumn colors to my images of the shrike.

I thoroughly enjoyed using my Nikon D500 in the field again. It is great to have it back in my hands and to have the sticking mirror issue resolved.

Life is good.

Mia

Click here to see more of my Loggerhead Shrike photos plus facts and information about this species.