Five days ago I found a large flock of over 100 Chukars on the dirt/gravel road in front of me. As I approached, they all flew to the ‘wrong’ side of the road for photography so I had to pass them and then turn around for them. Most of them had landed quite close to the road and on or near a large rocky outcrop on the side of the mountain so I spent the next 16 minutes photographing them.
Four days ago I posted a single Chukar photo from that encounter and said you’d probably be seeing more of them someday soon. Today is that day.
All photos are presented in the order they were taken.
At first most of the Chukars stayed hidden behind the rocky outcrop but these two seemed braver than the others.
A different composition of the same photo reveals the head of one of the many others that were lurking behind the rocks.
I’m guessing that the bird in front is a female and the one behind her is a male.
After a while the presumed male decided to walk slowly and deliberately toward the…
tallest point on the large rock. I believe he was the sentry for the flock. He spent a long time up there.
Soon the female joined him. The south breeze was ruffling their feathers almost constantly.
Soon other Chukars began to climb up the backside of the rock and make their appearance in different places so it was kind of like a shooting gallery for me. I kept going back and forth from one bird, or group of birds, to another.
Here the sentry is still at his post, along with the female, but they’ve been joined by another Chukar who seemed to appear by magic.
And the Chukar that seemed all alone just a few moments earlier had been joined by three other birds.
Suddenly Chukars seemed to be almost everywhere on the steep side of the mountain, but they were thickest on the point of the rock next to the sentry.
My goal of course was to photograph a nice cluster of birds that were sharp enough and had light on their faces without cutting off any of the other birds that were at the edge of the frame, either before or after cropping the image. But my efforts were constantly stymied by at least one bird that was cut off at the frame edge and/or another bird looking away or with its back to me.
My first stroke of luck came when I got these three huddled close together. The photo is cropped pretty tight, in part because there’s another Chukar just out of frame to the right.
In fact, that fourth bird is so close to them, sharp eyes may spot a tiny dark spot at the right frame edge where the rock meets the background. That dark spot is part of the tail of the fourth Chukar.
Then, for one brief moment, everything came together. I got all four birds in the frame, they’re all ‘sharp enough’ and I have direct eye contact from all of them. This is the photo I posted four days ago.
At this point I’d spent so long with them, and taken so many photos, I decided to turn around again and head down the road in the same direction I’d been driving when I originally found the Chukar flock. I wanted to get at least some photos of birds other than Chukars.
When I came back a half hour later I found the Chukar flock on the same part of the road where I’d originally found them. Once again they all flew to the same area on the side of the mountain where they’d flown to before.
But this time most of them landed on a steep talus slope below and to one side of the rocky outcrop so none of my photos of them had clean backgrounds. Chukars are so cryptic in this setting they were hard to spot and they didn’t stand out very well so my Chukar bonanza was over.
It was great fun while it lasted but I left them in place and continued on down the road.
Ron
That 10th shot is the perfect album cover for the Chukar Covey Trio. 😉 What a fun morning — and you have the receipts, as the kids say.
Thank you, Marty. I’ve completely lost track of what the kids say.
I may be (more than) a few years behind, but I seem to catch on to just enough to be embarrassing…er…dangerous. 😈
Glorious light for the first series. Reminding me, yet again, why I love to be up to welcome dawn. Our dawn is an hour or more away but I won’t be seeing any chukars. Big sigh.
No email again. And you are not in my reading list either. Again. Another big sigh.
Thanks, EC. That’s another thing we agree on – early morning is the best time of day.
Beautiful photos!
Thanks, April.
I never get tired of Chukars! Thanks, Ron.
Me either, Ellen. Thanks.
Super series Ron!
Thanks, Charlotte.
Very cool. Persistence pays off!
“Persistence pays off!”
This time at least. Thanks, Bruce.
Wonderful series, Ron! 🙂 Still hard to believe that many were in one spot and “cooperated” with you 😉 Is their coloring slightly different from spring or is it just he light? Seem more muted to me…..
Judy, their coloring is a little muted this time of year. And the ‘whites’ of their head aren’t as creamy.
My favs are the threesome and foursome shots. All the birds look so healthy!! What a happy encounter.
It was, Kathleen. Thanks.
What an “embarrassment of riches”–visual ones, that is….. It
must have been hard to decide where to swing your lens next!
Those strong “L”-shaped markings almost do a dance on their own,
and when they’re repeated 2, 3, and even 4 times in one frame
you’ve really got power and beauty galore…. I loved this post–
difficult to choose a favorite frame !
Thank you, Kris. I’ll take that kind of embarrassment any ol’ day.
Wow – certainly the largest showing of Chukars I have ever seen.
Excellent and interesting display Ron. I have never seen one and our Prescott area bird listing does not even list them. In addition to never seeing one I have never heard the word pronounced so I looked that up and found that our American pronunciation is exactly as I have been saying it, but that also the British pronounce it differently.
Well Everett, your comment inspired me to look up how the Brits pronounce Chukar. I had no idea.
What good luck. Nice photos Ron. Must have been something to see so many in one place.
Thanks, Michael. Lately I’ve been seeing bunches of them in the same place fairly often. What was special about this encounter was getting them off the road, close and in good light. They sure like to hang out on that road.
Thank you. These are beautiful photos. Amazing!
Take Care,
Kaye
Glad you like them. Thanks, Kaye.