Favorite Locations – Page 124 – Feathered Photography

Prairie Falcon – A Nemesis Resolved

Every avian photographer has their “nemesis birds” – a species or two that the gods of photography have foiled any and every attempt at getting quality images of. For me the Prairie Falcon has been at or near the top of that list. I particularly love to photograph raptors but locating and then getting close to this falcon in good light has eluded me for five years now. But two days ago I resolved that dilemma! 1/4000, f/5.6, ISO 640, 1.4 tc We first spotted this bird coming towards us along the Antelope Island causeway just as the sun peeked over the Wasatch. It soon landed on this stump and in good light but I wasn’t quite as close to the bird as I’d like to have been. Soon it lifted off and hunted the causeway going west, causing quite a ruckus among the gulls, shorebirds and ducks as it approached them. It was fairly easy to track the falcon by watching for groups of panicked birds taking to the air. 1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 800, 1.4 tc Next it landed on this interesting rock and I was able to get a little closer. The background is a little funky with the harsh color transition between water and rocky shoreline passing through the bird but I liked the perch and the good look at the entire bird, including tail. I suspect that this falcon has learned the fine art of thievery. Earlier this week we observed a Prairie Falcon along the causeway chase off a Peregrine Falcon from its Ruddy Duck…

Just a Shot That I Like…#3 – Chukar In Snow

The Chukar is a type of partridge that was introduced to Antelope Island many years ago and they thrive there. They’re originally native to Asia and are a popular game bird, though their range in North America is restricted because they thrive only in areas of low rainfall and humidity. 1/2500, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc I found this one last winter on a boulder just after a fresh snow fall. Though the white part of the background may look like clouds it is actually a snowy hillside with blue sky above. I like the soft colors, coy pose, rocky perch and the snow in the setting with the blue sky up top. Some may miss seeing the feet but that’s a trade-off I’ll gladly make to catch this handsome bird in the snow. Ron

Rough-legged Hawks Return To Utah

For the last couple of years I’ve had very little luck locating Rough-legged Hawks (roughies) here in northern Utah, which frustrates me because I think they’re among the most handsome and photogenic of all the raptors and I love to photograph them. These birds breed in the high arctic so they aren’t here at all during the summer. Most of them winter in the “lower 48” but they are highly nomadic and their numbers in a particular area fluctuate according to the availability of their rodent prey. This year I’m greatly encouraged because in the last ten days or so I’ve seen many of these striking hawks. 1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This one was atop a perch that is photographically challenging – a Tintic Quartzite boulder on the north end of Antelope Island. These rocks often blow out the whites on the sun side, especially if the bird on them is dark. I’ve deleted many a shot of a raven on one of these boulders. 1/3200, f/5.6, ISO 800, f/4, 1.4 tc This morning I had a wonderful (though sometimes frustrating) time with the roughies on the island. The highlight of the morning came when I was trying to sneak up on a kestrel perched in a rabbit brush. As I did so I noticed a gull flying right toward the kestrel but I quickly ignored it and concentrated on the kestrel. Then, at the last second, something in my mind said “hey, that was no gull” just as the bird swooped low…

Burrowing Owls of Antelope Island

I simply adore watching and photographing Burrowing Owls. They show more personality and cute little quirks than any other avian species I’ve photographed – especially the juveniles. There are usually three problems with shooting these birds though – finding them in the first place, getting close enough to them for high quality photographs without disturbing their normal activities or making them nervous and catching them out in the open or on an elevated perch so that the vegetation that usually surrounds their burrows doesn’t obscure the birds. Two summers ago a family of these owls had their burrow right along the road on the Antelope Island causeway. They were obviously very accepting of all the traffic so getting close without disturbing them was no problem – I’d just pull up on the road edge close to their burrow and stay in my pickup to photograph them. I photographed them for almost two weeks and I’ve kept a ridiculous number of those images- just can’t make myself delete many of them. The family consisted of both parents and four juveniles. I spent most of my time photographing the juvies – they’re just so vivacious, spunky and full of life that they make wonderful subjects. The problem at this burrow site was two-fold – lots of obscuring vegetation and then when they did perch up higher it was usually on some unattractive pieces of broken concrete adjacent to the burrow. 1/1250, f/9, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Occasionally one of the juveniles would be perched on this rock when we…

Critters Among the Sunflowers of Antelope Island

Antelope Island is ablaze with color this fall, provided by the common sunflower Helianthus annus. The sunflower display is really quite spectacular this year – the most prolific I’ve ever seen it. I suspect it’s because of the very wet spring we’ve had. The sunflowers can provide a very pleasing setting for wildlife photography, whether the flowers are in focus along with your subject or out of focus to show off some pleasing and unusual color in the background bokeh. Canon 40D @ 72mm, 1/800, f/6.3, ISO 320, EV +0.33 It’s unusual for me to get so close to a pronghorn that I don’t have to use a telephoto lens but these bucks are in rut right now and they’re so intent on herding their harem of females that they’re not nearly so wary of people and vehicles. So I quickly pulled out my old 40D and shot this handsome fella at only 72mm while he was right next to my pickup and staring intently at his ladies close by. This allowed me to keep many of the sunflowers relatively sharp and gave a different “feel” to the image than I usually get with my big glass. Canon 7D, 1/2500, f/5.6, ISO 640, EV + 0.33, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc In contrast to the previous image, this Vesper Sparrow was shot with my 500mm and 1.4 teleconverter (1120mm with the crop factor of the 7D) at f/5.6 which gave me very little depth of field – just enough to get the sparrow sharp but the sunflowers in the background…

Brine Fly Feeding Frenzy at the Great Salt Lake

The Great Salt Lake in northern Utah is a vital resource for many of North America’s birds. The lake is 75 miles long, 30 miles wide and has 1680 square miles of surface area and 335 miles of shoreline. Surrounding the lake are 400,000 acres of wetlands. Roughly 5 million birds of 257 species rely on the lake and those wetlands for food, sanctuary, breeding and as a migratory stopover. And one of the primary reasons the lake is such an asset for them is the endemic brine fly, Ephydra hians. Brine flies can be intimidating because of their massive numbers but they are truly innocuous. They are found only within a few feet of the shore, they don’t bite and won’t even land on humans. And they’re a huge nutritional resource for birds. In the photo above, the blurry brown bits in the background are brine flies in flight that have been stirred up by the feeding California Gull. Different bird species have varying feeding methods with these flies – this species often stakes out a few feet of feeding territory on the shoreline and then rushes through the hordes of flies on the sand, stirring them up, and then snaps them out of the air in large numbers. This bird is looking down the shoreline and preparing for its next run on the flies. Most of the flies are resting on the sand until the bird makes its run. As the gull rushes along the shoreline the flies are disturbed into the air and the bird snaps…

Birds, Lamentations And Musings From My Recent Trip To Western Montana

Recently Mia and I spent just over a week in western Montana on another camping/photo excursion. It was a trip packed with wonderful birds, breathtaking scenery, colorful characters and almost too much drama for me. We spent two days at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, then four days on the western Montana farm near the Canadian border where I grew up and then spent one night at Red Rocks again on the way home. In this post I’ll include a sampling of photos from the trip in the rough order they were taken. Canon 7D, 1/1250, f/5.6, ISO 800, EV +1.00, 800 f/4, 1.4 tc This Long-billed Dowitcher photo was taken at a pond on the refuge that often has many birds of good variety but it’s difficult to get good light at this location. Canon 7D, 1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 800, EV +0.00, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This Least Sandpiper gave me a similar pose as in the previous shot but I liked the head turn and lighting better (even though it made the whites a challenge to expose properly). Canon 40D @22mm, 1/60, f/14, ISO 500, EV +0.33 Mornings at Red Rocks are often spectacular. Here the sun is just beginning to rise on a layer of ground fog with another layer of low clouds just above the fog. Roads similar to and much worse than this one were the source of the drama I referred to earlier. On this trip we had a total of four flat tires, most…

The Shot That Broke My Heart

There was a range fire on the north end of Antelope Island yesterday that forced managers to clear out all campers from the campgrounds. So when we arrived early this morning the campgrounds were empty and this young coyote was hunting on the edge of Bridger Bay Campground. Canon 7D, 1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 500, EV +0.33 Normally the coyotes on the island are elusive and difficult to approach but I believe this to be a young one so it didn’t seem overly concerned about us. Besides, he/she obviously already had a quarry in sight deep in the grass and wasn’t about to let us interfere with the hunt. In this image the coyote has just spotted something of interest in the grass some distance in front of “him”. Canon 7D, 1/1600, f/8, ISO 500, EV +0.33 Here the coyote begins to make his stalk. At first he didn’t crouch down so that he could see what ever it was he was after through the grass. Canon 7D, 1/1250, f/8, ISO 500, EV +0.33 But as he got closer (both to the potential prey and to me) he began to crouch down, almost in a cat-like manner. At this point I suspected that something dramatic might happen and tried to prepare myself for “the shot”. The most common prey of coyotes on the island is voles but I was pretty sure it wasn’t a vole because the coyote was too far away from his point of interest when he first spotted it to…

Savannah Sparrows – a Bug’s Worst Enemy

On a recent camping trip to Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge a rustic old fence near where we camped was the staging area for several hunting Savannah Sparrows. They obviously had nests in the grass nearby and would regularly perch on the fence with prey in their beaks after hunting deep in the grasses. Canon 7D, 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 640, EV -0.33, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Boy, did they eat a lot of bugs! Most any kind of Arthropod seemed to be an acceptable part of their diet but this critter was one of their favorites. I believe it to be a dragonfly larvae. Canon 7D, 1/800, f/6.3, ISO 640, EV +0.33, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc When they returned to the fence line they would often have multiple prey in their beaks. I expected them to either immediately consume it or deliver it to the nest but that seldom happened. Instead they would typically hang around on the fence for extended periods of time with the prey still in their beaks – often for 10 minutes or more before eating it or flying off to their nest with it. I can’t explain the behavior but I’m certainly not complaining about it because that little behavioral quirk gave me many opportunities to photograph them with their bills full of interesting tidbits. Canon 7D, 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, EV +0.00, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Their diet wasn’t limited to insects either, as it wasn’t unusual to see them with spiders. Canon…

Raptors Mobbing Raptors

Mobbing is an antipredator behavior where animals mob a predator by cooperatively attacking or harassing it. This behavior is especially common in birds during nesting and rearing of young. Typically, it will be a flock of passerines like Red-winged Blackbirds mobbing a raptor or perhaps a magpie or any other bird they consider to be a threat to their nest or young. In mid-June of this year while Mia and I were on another one of our camping/photo forays to Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge we witnessed a somewhat unusual display of mobbing – raptors mobbing raptors. We had just returned to our camping trailer when Mia noticed this sub-adult Bald Eagle resting on a muskrat mound almost a quarter-mile away across Lower Red Rock Lake – too far away for quality photos (we had marginal light too) but we simply can’t resist training our lenses on a situation like this just to see if something interesting might happen. And this time it did. Canon 7D, 1/800, f/6.3, ISO 500 ev +1.33, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc The eagle seemed to be minding its own business and just hanging out for a while on the mound. Canon 7D, 1/640, f/6.3, ISO 500 ev +1.33, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc But soon a Short-eared Owl (a male I believe) appeared on the scene and he was not happy with the presence of the eagle. My presumption is that the owl had a nest in the area and it felt the eagle threatened the nest or young. Canon 7D, 1/1000, f/6.3, ISO 800 ev +1.00,…

Avocets and Phalaropes in a Hailstorm

Recently I’ve been tardy in posting on this blog because Mia and I just recently returned from one of our favorite camping/photo destinations – four days at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. This trip was a memorable one (as they always are at RRL). Canon 40D, 1/200, f/16, ISO 500 @35mm, ev 0.0 5:30 pm. We were photographing American Avocets and Wilson’s Phalaropes on one of the refuge ponds when we looked behind us to the west and saw this impressive storm heading our way. It was really dumping on the foothills surrounding the valley and we figured things might get interesting so we decided to stay at the pond and see what happened. Good thing we were shooting from my pickup or we’d have been in trouble… Canon 40D, 1/250, f/16, ISO 500 @17mm, ev +0.33 5:52 pm. The slow-moving storm took a while to get to us but when it did it was impressive. It began to rain very hard. It was so intense that neither of us could keep water off of our lenses – in spite of the 7″ long hood on the end of my 500mm lens. I love my new Ford F-150 pickup but the engineers did a poor job on the roof rain channels and water simply poured in off the roof whenever a window was down. As you can see in my side mirror, Mia (who shoots from the back seat) has taken a temporary respite from the downpour and has her lens pulled in and her window…

Antelope Island Barn Owl Family

There’ll be just a single image in today’s post – the majority of a large family of Barn Owls that are resident on Antelope Island this summer. Canon 7D, 1/80, f/7.1, ISO 640, EV -1.00, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc I have a special fondness for this species but like most avian photographers I’ve been frustrated by them because their almost strictly nocturnal habits make them extremely difficult to photograph (unless you use flash or some other form of artificial light, which I won’t do). Occasionally I’ve been able to find one out and about during daytime in winter but that’s a relatively rare occurrence. This is four of a family group of five or six that hang out on the north end of the island. They are such striking and beautiful birds (in my opinion) that I find it a bit incongruous that they insist on roosting in the mornings on this decidedly unattractive perch. But hey, if they like it – so do I. Well, sort of… Since this post consists of only one image I decided to make it 1200 pixels wide instead of my usual 900. Personally I always enjoy larger versions of images for their better detail. Ron

Short-eared Owls Defending Their Nest Against Predators

Recent reports from others indicate that bird activity on Antelope Island is slowing down now and our experience out there recently would agree with that assessment so yesterday when Mia and I were trying to decide where to go shooting birds we were a little hesitant about another trip to the island. But even with things slowing down we almost never fail to find something interesting to photograph and yesterday was certainly no exception! Canon 7D, 1/800, f/7.1, ISO 500, EV 0, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Soon after arriving on the island we noticed a pair of Short-eared Owls, obviously mated based on their behavior. Canon 7D, 1/1000, f/7.1, ISO 500, EV 0, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This owl was carrying a vole and we immediately suspected that the pair had a nest in the vicinity, which turned out to be true. It was quite a distance from the road and buried in vegetation but we could tell its location by watching this owl deliver food to the nest site – either to the mate or to both the mate and chicks. We watched and photographed the birds for a while but when things slowed down we went further down the island. Canon 7D, 1/1600, f/8, ISO 640, EV + .67, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc On our return to the area of the nest we immediately saw a quickly developing drama. A young coyote had apparently just crossed the road and was approaching the nest area and the owls were in…

Long-billed Curlews and “Bugs” of Antelope Island

Two days ago we were just about to go home after several photographically unproductive hours on Antelope Island because of a lack of cooperative subjects combined with a “cloud from hell” that hung over the island and ruined our light all morning when I spotted two Long-billed Curlews far below us. The area was accessible to our vehicle so we decided to investigate. Both Mia and I are very glad we did! Canon 7D, 1/3200, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc One of the two birds was this adult, perched attentively on this almost white Tintic Quartzite boulder. The curlew was very tolerant of us and let us get close and even allowed me to maneuver my pickup for a variety of backgrounds. Canon 7D, 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This adult was very relaxed in our presence and eventually settled into grooming and preening as it’s doing here. Canon 7D, 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc It turns out that the second bird I had spotted from up above was this juvenile in the tall grasses and the adult had obviously chosen a relatively high perch in order to keep an eye on the youngster (a behavior we’ve seen multiple times in adults with chicks or young juveniles). Canon 7D, 1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc We spent quite some time with these two birds – the parent on the boulder and the juvenile foraging in the grasses. Occasionally the adult would fly off for a few…

Chukar with Black Mustard

I know, my title sounds like a recipe title or an entree from a fancy restaurant. Couldn’t resist… I’ve been photographing Chukars on Antelope Island for several years now and I’m often pleasantly surprised by the lovely backgrounds the island provides. Since these birds like to perch on the boulders that are common on the island they are often separated from their backgrounds by enough distance to provide a pleasing out of focus backdrop of earth tones from the dried grasses. Canon 7D, 1/1250, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4 But until recently the background has never included attractive flowers that I recall. What a treat it was to find this bird immediately after we got on the island just as the sun was peeking over the mountains to the east which made for some some nice warm light and for the bird to choose a perch with such a pleasant background. In this case the flowers are Black Mustard (named for the seed color – not the color of the flower, obviously – thanks for the flower ID Mia!). I liked the calling pose in this full frame shot. Canon 7D, 1/1000, f/7.1, ISO 640, 500 f/4 And to make things even better this bird cooperated for quite a while – providing a variety of head turns and poses to take advantage of the light and the setting. Chukars like to perch on, and call from, boulders. That can be a problem because most of the rocks on the north end of the island where these…

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