American Robin

Not the most charismatic of subjects, but one I've always liked.  In this case, it also taught me something.  I've always thought of Robins as lawn birds and worm hunters (though I've seen large numbers in the overripe mountain blueberries in the fall).  We were camped last week in La Wis Wis National Forest CG on the Cowlitz river near Mt. Rainier and the local robins were hawking bugs over the river as if they were flycatchers, and their certainly weren't any lawns in the immediate vicinity.  I never caught one on the wing, but a couple of them had a nest in the woods somewhere nearby and they would use a snag near our campsite both as a hawking site and as a lookout to make sure nothing was following them before returning to their nest.  One of them was cagey and flew down to a mossy boulder before heading to the nest and in the process gave me a nice river bg.

7DII, Sigma 150-600 C @ 600 mm, Wimberley sidekick on Z1 ballhead on RRS legs, f/9, 1/400, iso 640, aperture priority, pattern metering, -1/3 EV.  Processed in lR5 & CS6.  Cropped from a horizontal original to a 9.7 MP 4x5 vertical.  I suspect some of the fly fishermen out there can identify the bug.  Taken June 2nd at 4:20 PM under partly cloudy skies.

Your comments and criticisms are always appreciated.

Thanks,