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Elegant Trogon
Trogon elegans
To learn more click here http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i3890id.html
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A Trogon comes to drink!
I was told that the female Elegant Trogon had not been seen in the area for several days so,
I figured I really didn't have to be to quite and or not make to much commotion while setting my equipment.
But I must tell you the story about photographing this Trogon before showing you the photos.
Grabbing my tri pod and easy chair I headed down the path to where I was going to set up my camera.
Plopping my chair and tri pod down I headed back up the path to my van to get the rest of my equipment
and a few goodies to eat while waiting. Remember now, at this point in time I was not looking for any birds.
Then, all of the sudden and on the extreme edge of my peripheral vision,
I noticed a fairly large something moving in a tree just over my head and a bit to my left.
Turning very quickly and very much to my surprise I saw a female Trogon not more than 10 feet away
and keeping an eagle eye on all of my movements.
How long it had been there I wont even begin to guess.
I don't have a camera in hand so I can't take its picture so I will just keep on setting up.
You can bet the old adrenal is really flowing by now.
As I started to run up the rocky hill side I said WHOOOA, this is no good,
I will more than likely stumble and fall before I get to my van,
besides the bird will have flown off by the time I get back any way.
At my van at last, I grabbed the rest of my stuff and headed back down the hill. OH, only if it didn't fly off I thought.
Now back to where I was going to set up I didn't see the bird. I just knew it would have flown away because of my movements.
I set all of my equipment, plunk down into my chair. I guess I had better affix my blind so the birds wont know I am there.
Grabbing my neatly folded up blind I quickly started to through it over my head. OH-NO I said, the Trogon was still in that tree.
I guess I had looked in the wrong tree/place the first time I looked for it when I came back.
I thought the heck with this blind, I don't think this bird cares what I do.
I grabbed my camera off its tri pod head and pointed it towards the bird in the tree.
Pushing the shutter release button, nothing happened, I better turn this darn thing on if I am going to take photos.
I just know that ole bird must have been laughing at me by now.
OK, I have the camera turned on and the flash unit on the camera and turned on.
And that bird just looking at me, turning its head back over its shoulder and them looking to the front about every few seconds.
I thought surly, no one would set up a phony bird in a tree just to fool an old man now would they?? :-))
As I went to click the shutter,
OH NO the lens had to much magnification,
now I have to change lenses. I had a 400 mm lens on the camera.
I had to put a 70 to 300 mm zoom lens on and had to back it off to about 175 mm to get this photo.
Now that should tell you just how close the bird was.
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I do believe this Trogon was more interested in me than I in it.
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Turning its head back to look forward yet keeping an eye on me.
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Having a Nikon N70s I just let the shutter run until its buffer was full which is only about 10 or so images.
And as soon as it dumped those to the compact flash card I then ran the shutter button
again, and again, my but it's nice not have to worry about buying film any more.
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I had no mare than finished taking approximately 50 images and the Trogon flew away, but not to far away.
Maybe no more than 20 feet or so and perched on another low tree branch just to my left.
This Trogon is a HAM, it wants its photo taken.
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I had no sooner snapped this image than it flew back across the area to just a few feet from where it was first seen.
Now, if it would only turn around,
I think it read my mind.
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I'm tellin ya this bird wants its picture taken, and taken.
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What I haven't shown you up to now is, that there is a small puddle of water in a dish in the ground just in front of me.
It has an eye on that water I do believe.
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Yes, I was correct.
And down it flew to the water dish buried in the ground.
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I think I'll have me a nice cool drink if'n that darned ole camera guy will stop taken pictures of me.
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As you can plainly see in this image a Trogon can not swallow unless it holds its head up. Also note its pale pink tongue.
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Maybe just one more drink for the road before I go.
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They just can't resist the dripping water.
Note the drop of water just ahead of the bird's beak that has just hit the surface of the water in the dish.
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Well, I've had my fill of this stuff so I had better be about my other business of finding a few bugs to eat.
As I may have said before the Trogon never got out of my sight for more than a few minutes at a time.
This images is about 150 feet away and the bird perched here for about 30 minutes or more.
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In a tree to its left and not to far away sat perched on a branch was a very nice Flicker so it went over to pay a visit to the Flicker.
I have not the slightest idea what they were talking about or even if they were
but here is where they staid for at least 20 to 30 minutes.
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After that the Flicker flew directly over to one of the branches the
Trogon had just been on. Maybe this is the most popular branch here?
Does this branch look familiar?
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Sure hope you have enjoyed the Trogon that came to drink at
Ash Canyon Bed & Breakfast
Mary Jo Ballator 5255 Spring Road, Hereford, Arizona 85615-9029 - -Phone: 520-378-0773
Welcome to our haven in the Huachuca Mountains!
Home of the Plain-capped Starthroat Hummingbird in 2003.
She now has her own web site just click on the link below
You may also visit and see the many birds that come to her place on my site at
http://birdfotos.com/brdwatch/ash_canyon/ash_canyon1.htm
You may e-mail me at: birdfotos@aol.com