![\"chukar](\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/chukar-2382-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nTypical winters are hard on birds in northern Utah (and elsewhere).\u00a0 But when the season is unusually frigid with lots of snow as we’re having this year they struggle even more to survive.<\/p>\n
All of\u00a0 these images have been taken since January 2 of this year.<\/p>\n
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Upland game birds like this Chukar seem to have adapted to extreme conditions fairly well.\u00a0 This bird was all puffed up and sitting high on a rock to catch the earliest warming rays of the sun as it rose over the nearby Wasatch Mountains.<\/p>\n
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Another upland game species that can apparently take harsh conditions quite well is the Ring-necked Pheasant (this is a female).\u00a0 They seem to forage for seeds\u00a0at the base of plants where the snow isn’t as thick and their food is more readily available.<\/p>\n
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But many other species have a difficult time and quite a few birds don’t survive until spring.\u00a0 The waterfowl that winter over here congregate in the few areas of open water where the flowing water is the last to freeze over.\u00a0 But when it gets very cold, even those small bits of open water freeze.\u00a0 I’ve\u00a0seen\u00a0 ducks and coots\u00a0frozen into the ice, some of them still alive.\u00a0 This female Green-winged Teal has just left one of the last unfrozen patches of water and is approaching an area of frost flowers.<\/p>\n
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![\"northern](\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/northern-flicker-1611-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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This Northern Flicker is using the protection of the underside of the eaves of a building on Antelope Island State Park.\u00a0\u00a0 I thought the angled icicles (caused by dripping water freezing as the wind blows) were a good visual indicator of the conditions birds have to deal with.<\/p>\n
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This juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron must catch fish to survive (other aquatic creatures are largely unavailable this time of year).\u00a0 But that’s pretty difficult to do through the ice…<\/p>\n
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Here an adult Black-crowned Night Heron huddles in the snow with the mostly frozen pond in the upper background.\u00a0 \u00a0Three days after this photo was taken there was a dead\u00a0adult BCNH floating in the one small patch of open water\u00a0left on this pond…<\/p>\n
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![\"northern](\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/northern-harrier-2549-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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Northern Harriers really struggle to survive when the snow gets thick.\u00a0 They take a few small birds when they can capture them but their staple is voles.\u00a0 When there’s lots of snow the voles become\u00a0largely unavailable.\u00a0\u00a0 During those times they will eat carrion, including dead fish, but they tend to shun carrion unless forced to eat it by the conditions.<\/p>\n
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![\"northern](\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/northern-harrier-0905-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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Roughly 12 days ago someone (most likely a photographer) placed a store-bought chicken or small turkey at the edge of a pond at Farmington Bay as a means of baiting raptors, particularly harriers and Bald Eagles), in close.\u00a0 I photographed at this pond for two days thinking the mound of\u00a0pink flesh the birds were attracted to was a dead carp (those fish can get huge).\u00a0 There was a second, smaller\u00a0dead fish in the area that was obviously a fish.\u00a0\u00a0 Personally, I’m against baiting for a variety of reasons having to do with photography ethics and the welfare of birds so I’m in the process of deleting the images I have of birds that turned out to be baited except for those that I use for blog\u00a0posts that document the situation.<\/p>\n
Here the frozen chicken can be seen beneath the two fighting harriers.\u00a0 A large,\u00a0unnatural food source like this brings in many birds and they fight ferociously over the\u00a0unexpected bounty, sometimes for days.\u00a0 Injuries such as broken legs, wings and\u00a0damaged eyes\u00a0from the fighting are not uncommon – one person has\u00a0documented those types of injuries five different times.<\/p>\n
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![\"northern](\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/northern-harrier-0673-ron-dudley1.jpg\")
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This harrier was one of the birds at the chicken bait (I’ve posted this image once before).\u00a0 As you can see, there’s something very wrong with its right eye.\u00a0\u00a0 Most folks (including bird rehabbers) who have seen photos of this bird think the eye has been injured and become infected (see the comments on this post <\/a><\/strong><\/em>about this bird if you’re interested) and that the infection was\u00a0likely to become systemic and very serious.\u00a0 We’ll apparently never know for sure and I haven’t seen this bird since January 2.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The American Coot is almost exclusively a herbivore but as you can see, even they will consume carrion if they have to (notice the piece of chicken flesh in the beak of the middle bird).<\/p>\n Opinions on the\u00a0ethics of baiting differ\u00a0and I can accept that, even though I don’t understand it.\u00a0 And then there’s the complication of just exactly what is the definition of baiting (there are gray areas).\u00a0 But I’m not a happy photographer when a prime spot for birds\u00a0has been\u00a0baited and I’m not aware it has occurred.\u00a0 More than once I’ve photographed in such a situation, only to find out much later that\u00a0baiting was done.<\/p>\n Since these photos were taken the weather has turned even more harsh with\u00a0much more snow and colder temperatures.\u00a0 The lows over the next two nights are predicted to approach\u00a0zero degrees F and some areas have had 2 1\/2 feet of snow (on top of what you see in these photos).<\/p>\n I’ll be thinking about the birds and other critters…<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Typical winters are hard on birds in northern Utah (and elsewhere).\u00a0 But when the season is unusually frigid with lots of snow as we’re having this year they struggle even more to survive. All of\u00a0 these images have been taken since January 2 of this year. Upland game birds like this Chukar seem to have adapted to extreme conditions fairly well.\u00a0 This bird was all puffed up and sitting high on a rock to catch the earliest warming rays of the sun as it rose over the nearby Wasatch Mountains. Another upland game species that can apparently take harsh conditions quite well is the Ring-necked Pheasant (this is a female).\u00a0 They seem to forage for seeds\u00a0at the base of plants where the snow isn’t as thick and their food is more readily available. But many other species have a difficult time and quite a few birds don’t survive until spring.\u00a0 The waterfowl that winter over here congregate in the few areas of open water where the flowing water is the last to freeze over.\u00a0 But when it gets very cold, even those small bits of open water freeze.\u00a0 I’ve\u00a0seen\u00a0 ducks and coots\u00a0frozen into the ice, some of them still alive.\u00a0 This female Green-winged Teal has just left one of the last unfrozen patches of water and is approaching an area of frost flowers. This Northern Flicker is using the protection of the underside of the eaves of a building on Antelope Island State Park.\u00a0\u00a0 I thought the angled…<\/p>\n![\"american](\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/american-coot-0956-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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