Category: Antelope Island
Rough-legged Hawk Flying Into The Wind
Yesterday morning I was able to get my first decent Rough-legged Hawk images of the season. It’s a good thing too because this was the only cooperative bird I found all morning.
Magpie With Nesting Material In Flight
One of the reasons I like to see iridescence in Black-billed Magpies is that it brings out detail in those areas of the deep blacks where you normally don’t see any. Flight shots are inherently more difficult than static shots but ironically I find it easier to get the iridescence to show in flight than I do when they’re perched.
Black-billed Magpie In Full Flight (not taking off)
Magpies aren’t among the most glamorous of birds so they don’t get a lot of attention from photographers but I enjoy them for their fascinating behaviors, their gutsiness and their apparent intelligence. And if you want a particularly challenging photographic subject you can’t go wrong with the Black-billed Magpie.
Chukar Calling On One Foot
Chukars continue to be one of my preferred subjects during the winter and spring due to their distinctive and colorful plumage and their often comical behavior. They are abundant on Antelope Island and even somewhat approachable there – at least in comparison to their skittish and wily ways elsewhere (hunters consider them to be among the most challenging of upland game species).
Birds “Wearing To Dark” – Some Visual Evidence As To Why
This past summer I posted these first two Loggerhead Shrike images as evidence that the ventral colors of the species change from white to almost black as the summer wears on and asked my readers why this occurs. Several responded with a logical explanation.
Three days ago I photographed a Horned Lark that may demonstrate that those readers were right.
Mourning Dove – Why Do I Usually Ignore The Common Species?
As a bird photographer I continually struggle with the tendency to ignore the more common species. This is a bad habit I’ve tried to break over the years but my success has been limited so I still too often pass on opportunities with species like the American Robin, House Finch, American Coot and Mourning Dove. Many fellow photographers have the same tendency and I think we miss some wonderful shots as a result.
A Bison’s Life Isn’t Easy
Life is far from a bowl of cherries for the Bison of Antelope Island and recently I’ve seen more evidence of that fact. Some of it is caused by natural behavior, some by unfortunate circumstance and some by the thoughtlessness and ignorance of humans.
A Curious Coyote, A Reflection And A Compositional Quandary
Two days ago we found this coyote exploring along the Antelope Island causeway. We watched it gnaw on a duck or shorebird carcass (possibly falcon leftovers, based on past experience) and then it continued to look for something, almost anything, to eat. When it reached the end of a rocky spit jutting out into the Great Salt Lake it entertained us with some interesting behavior.
Coyote Stained Yellow
Finally! – Another Antelope Island Burrowing Owl
It’s been a tough summer for me with Burrowing Owls. Normally I spend a lot of time photographing them but this year they’ve been mostly uncooperative to the extreme – too skittish, too far away, too buried in vegetation and too scarce.
But I had a pleasant surprise two days ago on Antelope Island.
Perch-hunting Red-tailed Hawk
Red-tailed Hawks in North America are “sit and wait predators” who do most of their hunting (60 – 80%) from elevated perches. Though they do hunt from the air, that is not their primary hunting style. In fact, availability of elevated perches is a key factor in determining their foraging distribution.
Antelope Island is largely treeless and without power poles so Red-tails tend to be found in specific locations on the island where elevated natural perches are available. One of their favorite foraging spots is an area where there are large outcroppings of Farmington Canyon Complex rocks jutting out from the side of a small mountain, which is where I found this bird hunting voles
Burrowing Owl In Dramatic Side Light
As every photographer knows, light angle can make or break an image. In static portrait shots especially, partial side lighting (at perhaps 45 degrees to your subject) emphasizes texture, patterns and shapes and helps to separate subject from background. It’s been said that side light “sculpts” your subject.
The Last Of The Hummingbirds
Last night a local birder reported a Black-chinned Hummingbird in his back yard here in the Salt Lake Valley and I was quite surprised to hear about it. I haven’t seen a hummingbird for several weeks and I thought that by now, with our significantly colder weather of late, they’d have all moved on for warmer climes. That particular bird must be a hardy one. Or lost…
But the news reminded me that before the snow flies I planned on posting a few more images of the hummers I photographed on Antelope Island several weeks ago.
Three Burrowing Owls and More Challenges With Depth Of Field
I’d been photographing a family of these birds for several weeks but typical of the species they were usually on the ground with obstructing vegetation in front of them or buried too deeply in the sagebrush. But as I approached them on this early August morning (in my pickup, from the road) there were two juveniles and one adult perched high on the sagebrush in nice warm light and there was a clean, pleasing background. My little heart went pit-a-pat at the opportunity but then I had to deal with the harsh reality of depth of field.
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Rough-legged Hawk Flying Into The Wind
Yesterday morning I was able to get my first decent Rough-legged Hawk images of the season. It’s a good thing too because this was the only cooperative bird I found all morning.
Magpie With Nesting Material In Flight
One of the reasons I like to see iridescence in Black-billed Magpies is that it brings out detail in those areas of the deep blacks where you normally don’t see any. Flight shots are inherently more difficult than static shots but ironically I find it easier to get the iridescence to show in flight than I do when they’re perched.
Black-billed Magpie In Full Flight (not taking off)
Magpies aren’t among the most glamorous of birds so they don’t get a lot of attention from photographers but I enjoy them for their fascinating behaviors, their gutsiness and their apparent intelligence. And if you want a particularly challenging photographic subject you can’t go wrong with the Black-billed Magpie.
Chukar Calling On One Foot
Chukars continue to be one of my preferred subjects during the winter and spring due to their distinctive and colorful plumage and their often comical behavior. They are abundant on Antelope Island and even somewhat approachable there – at least in comparison to their skittish and wily ways elsewhere (hunters consider them to be among the most challenging of upland game species).
Birds “Wearing To Dark” – Some Visual Evidence As To Why
This past summer I posted these first two Loggerhead Shrike images as evidence that the ventral colors of the species change from white to almost black as the summer wears on and asked my readers why this occurs. Several responded with a logical explanation.
Three days ago I photographed a Horned Lark that may demonstrate that those readers were right.
Mourning Dove – Why Do I Usually Ignore The Common Species?
As a bird photographer I continually struggle with the tendency to ignore the more common species. This is a bad habit I’ve tried to break over the years but my success has been limited so I still too often pass on opportunities with species like the American Robin, House Finch, American Coot and Mourning Dove. Many fellow photographers have the same tendency and I think we miss some wonderful shots as a result.
A Bison’s Life Isn’t Easy
Life is far from a bowl of cherries for the Bison of Antelope Island and recently I’ve seen more evidence of that fact. Some of it is caused by natural behavior, some by unfortunate circumstance and some by the thoughtlessness and ignorance of humans.
A Curious Coyote, A Reflection And A Compositional Quandary
Two days ago we found this coyote exploring along the Antelope Island causeway. We watched it gnaw on a duck or shorebird carcass (possibly falcon leftovers, based on past experience) and then it continued to look for something, almost anything, to eat. When it reached the end of a rocky spit jutting out into the Great Salt Lake it entertained us with some interesting behavior.
Coyote Stained Yellow
Finally! – Another Antelope Island Burrowing Owl
It’s been a tough summer for me with Burrowing Owls. Normally I spend a lot of time photographing them but this year they’ve been mostly uncooperative to the extreme – too skittish, too far away, too buried in vegetation and too scarce.
But I had a pleasant surprise two days ago on Antelope Island.
Perch-hunting Red-tailed Hawk
Red-tailed Hawks in North America are “sit and wait predators” who do most of their hunting (60 – 80%) from elevated perches. Though they do hunt from the air, that is not their primary hunting style. In fact, availability of elevated perches is a key factor in determining their foraging distribution.
Antelope Island is largely treeless and without power poles so Red-tails tend to be found in specific locations on the island where elevated natural perches are available. One of their favorite foraging spots is an area where there are large outcroppings of Farmington Canyon Complex rocks jutting out from the side of a small mountain, which is where I found this bird hunting voles
Burrowing Owl In Dramatic Side Light
As every photographer knows, light angle can make or break an image. In static portrait shots especially, partial side lighting (at perhaps 45 degrees to your subject) emphasizes texture, patterns and shapes and helps to separate subject from background. It’s been said that side light “sculpts” your subject.
The Last Of The Hummingbirds
Last night a local birder reported a Black-chinned Hummingbird in his back yard here in the Salt Lake Valley and I was quite surprised to hear about it. I haven’t seen a hummingbird for several weeks and I thought that by now, with our significantly colder weather of late, they’d have all moved on for warmer climes. That particular bird must be a hardy one. Or lost…
But the news reminded me that before the snow flies I planned on posting a few more images of the hummers I photographed on Antelope Island several weeks ago.
Three Burrowing Owls and More Challenges With Depth Of Field
I’d been photographing a family of these birds for several weeks but typical of the species they were usually on the ground with obstructing vegetation in front of them or buried too deeply in the sagebrush. But as I approached them on this early August morning (in my pickup, from the road) there were two juveniles and one adult perched high on the sagebrush in nice warm light and there was a clean, pleasing background. My little heart went pit-a-pat at the opportunity but then I had to deal with the harsh reality of depth of field.