![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/common-raven-6903-horizontal-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"common-raven-6903-horizontal-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nAnd some incredibly cold temperatures.<\/p>\n
After another week stuck at home (I know, that pattern is beginning to sound like a broken record) due to inclement weather and medical appointments, I finally got out again yesterday morning.<\/p>\n
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1\/8000, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n As expected, Antelope Island was almost barren of birds but I did manage to get several photos of this Common Raven in flight soon after it took off from one of the island’s ubiquitous Tintic Quartzite boulders. With the jet-black bird taking off from a very light-colored rock in a setting that included a snow-covered hillside in the background, it was an exposure nightmare. But the light angle was such that I still had pretty good detail in the blacks of the raven.<\/p>\n If you’re wondering why the pure white snow on the hillside appears light tan it’s because it was covered with brownish vegetation and it was far enough away that the bokeh<\/a><\/span><\/span> of my lens rendered it as an off-white.<\/p>\n For this version of the photo I had to add a narrow sliver of canvas on the right side of the image to avoid having the raven completely centered in the frame but…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n a vertical composition of the same photo avoided that problem. Plus, it made the raven larger in the frame.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Birds were so scarce on the island I decided to make a quick stop at Farmington Bay WMA on the way home, where I found…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 200, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n an immature Red-tailed Hawk hunting voles from a low perch in a large tree. This photo was taken after ‘he’ took off away from me, pounced on the vole that you see in his talons, and returned with the vole to a different branch on the same tree.<\/p>\n When he was returning to the tree I assumed he’d land on the same branch he took off from, so in an attempt to get landing shots I made the mistake of prefocusing on that branch. But he landed on a lower branch so I missed the landing shots.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For the rest of this week we’re supposed to have some pretty good light for photography so I hope to publish posts to my blog more frequently than I have in recent weeks. That is, if I can find birds in this bitterly cold weather.<\/p>\n The recent temperatures around here are beginning to remind me of my days growing up in northwestern Montana. As I type this at 4:10 AM my outdoor thermometer reads 4\u00b0 F. and it’s supposed to get colder by dawn. Due to cold temps and wind, some schools have been opening two hours later than usual and Utah’s notorious Peter Sinks<\/a><\/span><\/span> near Logan had a low of 61\u00b0 below zero yesterday morning.<\/p>\n Is it cold where you are? For those of you in the path of the forecast frigid temps and ice storms in the south and central US, I wish you loads of luck.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n PS – My friend Loren Nebeker was parked near my pickup when the red-tail landed in the tree with the vole. Loren was smarter than I was so because he didn’t prefocus on the branch the hawk took off from, he got a few of the landing shots I missed. If you’re on Facebook, one of them can be seen here<\/a><\/span><\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" And some incredibly cold temperatures. (3 photos)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/common-raven-6903-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"common-raven-6903-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/red-tailed-hawk-6987-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-6987-ron-dudley\\"")
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