{"id":13622,"date":"2013-03-24T06:07:57","date_gmt":"2013-03-24T12:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=13622"},"modified":"2013-03-24T06:07:57","modified_gmt":"2013-03-24T12:07:57","slug":"chukars-more-accessible-during-springtime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/24\/chukars-more-accessible-during-springtime\/","title":{"rendered":"Chukars – More Accessible During Springtime"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our Chukars are generally easier to approach in the spring and early summer than they are the rest of the year.\u00a0\u00a0 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\u00a0pickup.\u00a0 And this time of year Chukars like to call from elevated perches (especially rocks) which they’re often reluctant to abandon when a vehicle approaches.\u00a0 In addition,\u00a0coveys of these birds often post a sentry as the rest of the flock is foraging for food and the sentry is sometimes easy to get close to.<\/p>\n

Each of these photos was taken this past week on Antelope Island.<\/p>\n

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\"chukar<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a01\/800, f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Many folks are unfamiliar with the Chukar so I’m presenting these first two images for their clear, detailed look at the bird, first from the front…<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"chukar<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a01\/800, f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

and then from the side.\u00a0 Their\u00a0plumage pattern is unique among\u00a0North American\u00a0game birds with that distinctive black line running through their forehead, eyes and down the neck, their red legs and bill and the prominent chestnut barring on the flanks.<\/p>\n

This bird was perched on one of the many white Tintic Quartzite boulders that are so common on the north end of the island.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"chukar<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a01\/1000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 100-400 @ 400mm, natural light<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

This one was so “sticky” that I had to switch to my 100-400mm zoom lens to get it all in the frame.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"chukar<\/a><\/p>\n

1\/2000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, 100-400 @ 285mm, natural light<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

And this\u00a0bird was even stickier.\u00a0 Notice that I’m only at 285mm for the shot.\u00a0 When they’re calling like this they’re often very reluctant to leave the perch.<\/p>\n

There are times in the early mornings on the island when there are so many Chukars calling with their sounds bouncing off the hillsides from every direction that it almost sounds like the island is crawling with\u00a0domestic chickens.\u00a0 Here’s a link<\/strong><\/a> to one of their\u00a0calls if you’re interested (scroll about half way down).<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,334,352],"tags":[26,31,1102,1231,82,97,1354,311],"class_list":["post-13622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-antelope-island","category-birds","category-chukars","tag-alectoris-chukar","tag-antelope-island-2","tag-calling","tag-canon-100-400mm-lens","tag-chukar","tag-covey","tag-tintic-quartziet","tag-utah-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-3xI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13622\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}