Sometimes a plan works Spotted Towhee

Bajadreamer

At our community park I have noticed a pair of Spotted Towhees frequently in the morning. They obviously have a near by nest. I decided to get a picture in the early morning light. So often my plans for a photo don’t work as well as I would like, but this one worked well. I looked at the solar forecast for time and angle of sunrise. I was in position about 15′ before the sun peeked over the horizon. I chose my background and perch that would be visible when I took the shot. I placed a blue tooth speaker on the ground below the post and got the camera ready on a tripod. A Canon R5, 100-500 mm lens at 500 mm. The post (an old wood fence) was about 20′ away. I used call back for about 5 seconds. Within 45 seconds the bird was on the post and I took over 50 shots in a 10 second time frame. He flew off and I packed up and went home. All told, it was about 15 minutes total. This picture is cropped slightly from the right and bottom. The background has been selectively darkened slightly. Shot was taken at SS 1/400, f/7.1, ISO 3200.