{"id":105251,"date":"2021-12-20T05:09:26","date_gmt":"2021-12-20T12:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=105251"},"modified":"2021-12-20T08:13:10","modified_gmt":"2021-12-20T15:13:10","slug":"the-one-disadvantage-of-photographing-birds-in-early-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2021\/12\/20\/the-one-disadvantage-of-photographing-birds-in-early-morning\/","title":{"rendered":"The One Disadvantage Of Photographing Birds In Early Morning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Around here you only have to worry about it in winter.<\/p>\n

Yesterday morning was a bust. After days on end of being stuck at home for various reasons the early morning forecast and weather radar\/satellite looked good so in the predawn darkness I headed for Bear River MBR to look for birds. It takes me over an hour to get there and my plan was to arrive at sunrise. For reasons I’ve described before, very early morning is my favorite time to photograph birds.<\/p>\n

During the drive in the near-darkness the moon was bright and the skies were obviously clear so I had high hopes for good light and at least some degree of success.<\/p>\n

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But this is what greeted me at the refuge at (theoretical) sunrise – thick fog. In many places it was much thicker than this. On very cold mornings in winter (shortly before this photo was taken I saw 6\u00b0 F.) fog is common in many of my birding haunts that are close to the Great Salt Lake, in part because of their relatively low elevation. During my time on the refuge I saw a pretty decent number of raptors and because of the intense cold some of them were even ‘sticky’ but in the thick fog I had little chance for photos I like<\/p>\n

The three photos below document my failure. Be forewarned – the best photo I took yesterday was of the annual pass to Antelope Island and the causeway sitting on my dusty dashboard in the photo above.<\/p>\n

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A Barn Owl hunkered down in the phrags.<\/p>\n

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A Rough-legged Hawk in flight.<\/p>\n

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A frosty Northern Harrier contemplating the fog and cold.<\/p>\n

It looked like the fog was beginning to clear out at just about the time I left the refuge and headed for home. This time of year it’s a gamble. I prefer the light soon after dawn but fog typically doesn’t show up on the weather radar\/satellite so I have to head for my destination and take my chances when I get there. In winter when it’s very cold I may have to change my ways and resign myself to shooting later in the day when fog has cleared out?<\/p>\n

So why am I posting these lousy photos? After so many days of posting mostly older photos to my blog because I haven’t been out shooting for so long I wanted my readers to know that I really am trying…<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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Notes: <\/em><\/p>\n