Yellow Headed Blackbird

Drove home from a project in Washington Terrace tonight.   Along the way was the Farmington Bay bird refuge.  This time of year the majority of the refuge is closed due to nesting.   The very small portion that is open closes at 5:00 p.m.?  I arrived at about 5:25.  It was hard to sneak the Nissan Titan too far.  Until I was caught the opportunity to photograph the two blackbirds above presented itself.   Like most all birds I have encountered they are shy.  These two were in the middle of a quarrel.   A very unique guttural sound blasted from the birds as they threw their heads and fanned their feathers.    The D-3 and my 200-400 lens mounted on the Nikon 1.7 converter brought the two bickerers closer.  Click on the photo to enlarge it and look close at the bugs all around the birds.  It definitely is not sensor spots.  It's bugs.  Lots of bugs.  I first thought the birds had a physical ailment as they would twitch very quickly.  Between the twitching and the quarreling I wondered why National Geographic had not done a special on them.  The twitching was when they were snatching bugs out the air.  The quarreling must have been a family matter.  I shot it wide open.  Gives the cat tails a nifty look.  ISO was 400 and the shutter speed was 1/850 second.  Hope to see this bird again soon.  Maybe next time I won't have a ranger chasing me off.