Blue Grosbeak!

Heading to Shawnee for the OOS conference, my friend Doug Cook and I got there a day early to do some photography and scout for the photo trip.  Knowing that the Edge of Appalachia was a good place to look, we headed there.  Driving up, we spotted this guy right across from the Eulett Center. There appeared to be two of them, or there was a Indigo Bunting.  

The two were chasing around and even landed in the street a few times.  It was quite fun watching, but we were not the only that noticed these two distracted birds.  It caught the attention of a Sharp-shinned Hawk.

I missed from my vantage point, but Doug saw the hawk swoop in and snatch one of the birds.  The hawk was unlucky and somehow the would-be victim got away. We waited and watched for some time before this beauty came out again.  We did not see the other one.  Not sure if it was wounded or just hiding. This guy did not disappoint us as he came right over to the tree he kept going to before.  

I didn't set up well for this perch.  They kept coming to here before and it was perfect perch , but it was back light.  I wish we had setup about 20 feet forward of where we were, to take advantage of the sun.  I was able to use exposure compensation to get a couple decent pics. 

Lucky, he also flew down to the base of the tree where he was in the shade.  I got these much better exposed pictures.





















































He flew back out of sight after this brief couple minutes.  We waited a few minutes and moved on. Getting to the Shawnee Lodge later in the day, we were able to share our experience and the field trip the next day was able to get nice looks at the Grosbeak too.



Thanks for looking!
Bruce