After several days of heavy migration activity in Brazoria County, today migrants seemed considerably fewer. Despite my best efforts I wasn’t making much progress on bird photography so I decided to head home. Before I made it to my car, I noticed this Painted Bunting hopping around in the tall grass so I decided to wait and watch. It took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on but eventually I determined that my colorful subject was busy hunting grasshoppers. The speed at which the bird consumed its prey was impressive. In most cases the grasshopper was eaten so quickly that I couldn’t even tell what was being eaten other than the fact that whatever it was, it was bright green. Eventually I did get a good enough look to determine that grasshoppers were for lunch but the couple of shots I got of them weren’t particularly well focused so you’ll have to settle for this photo and my explanation for what was going on. I was pretty thrilled that this beauty ended up saving the day, at least in terms of my photography.

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Passerina ciris