I tend to like gnarly old sagebrush perches and I’ve had my eye on this one for a while. It’s close to the road, in good light in the morning and Western Meadowlarks use it often. But unlike when they’re perched on an ugly sign, they always seem to fly off as I approach when they’re on this one.
That changed yesterday morning.
Early last Sunday morning was a good time for Chukars on Antelope Island. It was too early for the weekend crowds who were mostly still home snoozing away, the light was great and the Chukars cooperative.
On this morning as I was leaving Antelope Island after a morning of shooting I was, as always, watching for a Prairie Falcon along the causeway. Occasionally I’ve been lucky with that strategy but it doesn’t happen very often. One advantage I had is the fact that if there was one there it would likely be perched on the rocks next to the Great Salt Lake. With that dark blue background, the bright whites on the breast of the falcon are often easy to spot. And that’s exactly what happened.
A week ago today, on 3/29/13, I photographed a pair of courting Long-billed Curlews on Antelope Island. For sexual ID purposes, notice that the female of this species (on the right in this first image) is larger than the male and has a significantly longer bill. It’s also been my observation that the male is darker and redder than the female but I don’t see that mentioned in the physical descriptions in the field guides and other sources that I’ve read.
I’ve never been able to get a Chukar in flight or taking off, largely because they’re so hesitant to fly. Even when they’re perched on an elevated rock they usually just hop to the ground when they’re ready to leave. And when they do fly, typical of most upland game birds, they fly very fast, low to the ground and away from you which makes for an almost impossible target. But I got one yesterday morning, taking off. 1/5000, f/5.6, ISO 500, 100-400 @260mm, natural light This bird was acting as a sentry (also called a sentinel) for a small group of other Chukars nearby. It’s observation perch of choice was a sign post that was high enough that it had to actually fly when it decided to leave. I was too close to this bird for my 500mm lens so I quickly grabbed my 100-400 zoom lens and when it looked like it might be thinking of taking off I zoomed back far enough to give the Chukar enough room to fly into. I had plenty of light for a shutter speed fast enough to freeze the wings of even this buzz-saw flier (those relatively short wings on such a chunky bird really have to churn to get it airborne) and was lucky enough to catch the wings in a position I like. A more appealing perch would have been nice but I’m pleased with the way most everything else turned out. Ron
One of my favorite birds on the island is the Long-billed Curlew. They’ve been gone for a long time and I’ve missed them but they’re back now, as of two days ago.
Our Chukars are generally easier to approach in the spring and early summer than they are the rest of the year. Right now, pair bonds are being formed and the birds seem more concerned with others of their own kind than they are about me and my pickup.
This was one of my stranger encounters with the bird world, though I’ll preface my narrative by admitting that I don’t have a lot of experience with nightjars of any species so perhaps what this bird was doing wasn’t really so unusual. I just don’t know.
Sometimes a change of position of just a few inches can have a fairly dramatic affect on the overall “feel” of an image. That was the case with this Antelope Island Chukar. 1600, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light I found the bird on a rock ledge and slightly above me which gave an almost eye-level perspective that I like. Occasionally it would call, as they’re very prone to do. 1600, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light But then it began to walk a short distance to my right (I’m always surprised that the bottoms of their feet are yellow)… 1600, f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light which brought the snow-covered hillside in the background into play. At first there was a mix of snow and blue sky back there… 2000, f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light but then I deliberately raised my window a couple of inches (as usual I was shooting from my pickup) to take the blue sky out of the picture. And the bird obliged me by calling once again. Most of the snow is finally gone from the island now. Even the roads to the Frary Peak trailhead and White Rock Bay are open – they’ve been closed for months due to snow. Hopefully that’s a sign that the curlews and Willets (and other spring birds) won’t be far behind. Hope so – it’s been a long dry spell on the island. Ron
Before Europeans came to North America and cleared forests which modified the environment into the agricultural and suburban landscapes of today, the range of the Brown-headed Cowbird was limited to the short-grass plains where they followed the almost endless herds of American Bison as they fed on the insects stirred up by those wandering behemoths. Early settlers so strongly associated them with bison that they were called “Buffalo Birds”. Today that relationship still exists wherever limited numbers of bison can still be found. Antelope Island is one of those places. One of the many challenges facing the cowbird was obtaining enough moisture as it followed the bison herds over the hot, rolling plains. In late summer several years ago I photographed a cowbird behavior that illustrated one of the ways they solved that problem. I found this huge bull languishing in the broiling sun next to a boulder that it had been using as a scratching post. A group of Brown-headed Cowbirds were in the vicinity but at first I wasn’t paying much attention to them. Then this female (at frame bottom) flew in close… and began flying at the nostrils of the bull. Initially I was unsure about what she was doing but she did it repeatedly and eventually it became clear that she was… drinking the mucus-laden secretions from the bison’s nostrils. She would actually hover in place as she gobbled down the long, stringy strands of mucus. Not a pretty sight and perhaps a bit unsettling to our human sensibilities but what an incredibly adaptive behavior…
It’s been a while since I’ve seen any Barn Owls out and about and I’m thinking they won’t be flying again during daytime until at least next winter so I decided to bid them adieu for the present with one last post for the season. I generally prefer my avian subjects on natural perches but Ingrid Tayler’s affection for birds on man-made perches in the urban landscape is beginning to instill in me a little more flexibility. Perhaps it isn’t too late for some new tricks from this old dog… 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, natural light, not baited set up or called in At Farmington Bay WMA there are numerous signs posted directing hunters to where they can hunt and where they cannot and those signs are favorite resting spots for hunting raptors. When I come across an owl on one of these signs I’ll typically drive on by unless there’s a possibility for take-off shots but I made an exception for this one despite the less than ideal light. 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited set up or called in Another favorite perch is this kestrel nesting box at the top of a hill. From this elevated vantage point the birds can hunt visually over a large area without expending the energy required for flight – a significant advantage in the depths of a long, cold winter when calories are at a premium. This owl looks like it might be wary of me and about to fly, but it isn’t. It was calmly…
Black-billed Magpies are loud, flashy and conspicuous black and white birds. And they’re a challenge to photograph well because of the exposure difficulty – getting detail in the blacks without “blowing out” the whites. I probably discard a higher proportion of shots of this species than I do any other. But if you work hard at it (with a little luck thrown into the mix) you can get some pretty spectacular shots that have detail in the blacks and whites and their showy iridescence. The actual plumage of these birds is truly black and white, with no other colors. But in the right light the feather structure (and other factors) on the tail and wings of these birds bends the light much like a prism and produces a variety of colors, predominantly blues and greens. When I’m photographing magpies, one of my goals is usually to capture some of that iridescence. 1/4000, f/6.3, ISO 500, 100-400 @ 400mm, natural light Three days ago I found this magpie perched on a snow-covered boulder on Antelope Island. As you can see the whites are well-exposed but there’s not a lot of detail in the blacks. This is the type of magpie image that I normally wouldn’t do much with except for purposes such as this post (my high shutter speeds were due to the snow and the fact that I was attempting take-off shots). 1/4000, f/6.3, ISO 500, 100-400 @ 400mm, natural light This is the same bird on the same perch but the image was taken…
Parallax is the effect where the position or direction of an object appears to differ when viewed from different positions. When an observer moves, the apparent relative motion of several stationary objects against a background gives hints about their relative distance which the brain can interpret to provide absolute depth information. As you can imagine this can be very helpful to birds for flight and for judging prey position. The movement required comes automatically during flight but it can also be provided while perched by exaggerated movements of the head in all three dimensions. Tipping the head also provides cues by changing the relative position of the eyes to the object being viewed. Learning to interpret this information takes practice so many juvenile birds do just that, owls in particular. Techs for the following images – most were taken at 1/640 or 1/800, f/9, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in. All images presented in the order they were taken. Several years ago I spent a lot of time over several weeks photographing a family of Burrowing Owls along the causeway to Antelope Island. Their burrow was very close to the road and they became almost completely acclimated to traffic so I was able to observe and photograph many interesting behaviors of both juveniles and adults from my pickup. Here, this juvenile is simply ignoring me (for the sake of convenience I’ll refer to this bird as a male though I have no idea what sex it…
Raptors at take-off typically have a “focused” look about them – they’re all business. But I thought the intensity of purpose of this Red-tailed Hawk was particularly evident. 1/3200, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in Red-tails are “perch-and-wait” hunters so when they take off after prey they already have their eye on it and their focus is seldom diverted as they swoop in for the kill. This juvenile was hunting voles from an elevated rock perch on Antelope Island several months ago. I’ve had few opportunities with red-tails since all the snow piled up around here. Hopefully that will soon change… Ron
Two days ago we had great fun with Chukars on Antelope Island. The afternoon before had been relatively warm, melting the top layer of snow which then froze into a thin crust on top of the snow during the night. Our timing was perfect as we found a large covey of Chukars flitting between sagebrush and rabbitbrush for cover just as the morning sun was beginning to soften the hard crust. As you view these photos, keep in mind that most of the sequences were shot in bursts of 8 frames per second. The action was pretty fast. When these birds were walking, the crust would support their weight but they just couldn’t resist the impulse to run. And when they did… the crust, which had only become soft in the last few minutes, would usually give way… leaving a very surprised bird stuck in the snow. The bird would then pull out of the snow. This one almost looks like it’s looking around to see if any of its buddies saw its silly maneuver. Usually they seemed to know that they needed to walk instead of run, which they did for a few steps but then they nearly always tried to run again. It was hilarious to watch and it happened repeatedly. This was one of those few times that I wish I’d been prepared to shoot video but I think the still shots still give a pretty good sense of what was happening. Another…
