Tag: chukar

Early Spring Birds and Craziness on Antelope Island

 Typically our first spring camping trip is a shake-down cruise for the trailer to Antelope Island.  If anything goes wrong with the trailer (and it sometimes does after sitting all winter) I’ll be relatively close to home.  This year we spent the last two days of March on the island.  Most of the photos in this post were taken on that trip.   1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 500  There’s been a few Western Meadowlarks on the island for much of the winter but they’ve returned in large numbers now.  In all my travels in the west I don’t think I’ve ever seen any other area with such a high concentration of this species.   At times their beautiful song resonates all over the hills of the island.  Meadowlarks always bring back fond memories for me of growing up on the Montana farm.      1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 500 Loggerhead Shrikes are another very common species, especially on the northern part of the island.   They’ve been absent all winter but we’re seeing more of them on each visit now.   It was cloudy when this image was taken and I didn’t get a lot of light in the eye but I think there’s just enough.      1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 500 I always look forward to the return of the Long-billed Curlews with great anticipation and they started appearing about 10 days ago.  I was happy to get this shot of the male on the right displaying for the female.  Male and female curlews are almost identical but they can be differentiated by their…

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Chukars of Antelope Island

 The Chukar, also known as the Chukar Partridge, is a species first introduced into North America from India in 1893.  Since then they have flourished, particularly in the Great Basin of the American west where the largely feed on the seeds and leaves of cheat grass.  Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake provides perfect habitat for them and they abound there.    Chukar calling In the springtime there are times when the hillsides sound like the island has been overrun by domestic chickens from the calling of the Chukars.      Preening on a rock perch Chukars are very prone to perch on rocks – especially in the spring.  While there they call to other birds and preen.  Sentinel birds of a flock also prefer elevated perches while on lookout, which of course is ideal for the bird photographer.      Parent with chicks And here’s one of the reasons there’s so many Chukars on Antelope Island – the breed prodigiously.  Clutch size can be up to 21 eggs!     Chukar covey on boulder In late summer and fall Chukars often congregate in large groups.  These coveys tend to consist of adults and their offspring but several family groups may mix together.      Preparing to jump off the rock Like some other upland game birds, Chukars are often reluctant to fly.  They will typically jump down from their perch and scurry through the vegetation to hide.  They are very fast runners and easily outrun a human on foot.     Rock hopping  I’m often tempted to call these birds “rockhoppers” because of their tendency…

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Photographing Birds on Antelope Island

  My previous post was an overview of the geology of Antelope Island and its non-bird wildlife.  Here, I’ll focus on its birds.   Juvenile Loggerhead Shrike begging for food Loggerhead Shrikes are common on many parts of the island during summer.  They can be a challenge to approach but those few that nest close to the road eventually get used to traffic so if you photograph from your vehicle you can often get quite close.  Here this juvenile was begging for food that was being delivered by a parent just out of frame to the left.    Loggerhead Shrike with dragonfly  Shrikes are often called “butcher birds” for their practice of temporarily impaling their prey on thorns or other sharp projections.   This juvenile had done just that with the dragonfly but it wasn’t very good at it yet and in the end just decided to eat it instead of store it away.     Loggerhead Shrike with spider Shrikes are opportunistic carnivores known to feed on insects, spiders, amphibians, small reptiles, rodents and other birds.   This one also attempted to impale the prey before eating it.     Juvenile Burrowing Owl practicing its parallax technique on me Burrowing Owls are one of my favorite species on the island though they can be difficult to locate from year to year as they often don’t seem to nest in the same burrow the next year.  In the summer of 2009 there was an entire family of owls along the causeway to the island nesting under concrete rubble, as in the…

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