{"id":164827,"date":"2024-10-16T06:10:50","date_gmt":"2024-10-16T12:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=164827"},"modified":"2024-10-16T08:24:41","modified_gmt":"2024-10-16T14:24:41","slug":"quadrachukars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2024\/10\/16\/quadrachukars\/","title":{"rendered":"Quadrachukars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday morning in Utah’s west desert I encountered yet another huge flock of Chukars in the middle of the dirt\/gravel road in front of me. As I proceeded, as usual they all flew to the rocky slope to my right, which was on the ‘wrong’ side of my pickup for photography. Typically when this happens they all disappear into the vegetation so it’s a waste of time and effort to turn around for them.<\/p>\n

But this time I noticed that many of them had landed on top of a large rocky outcrop next to the road and most were making no attempt to hide, so I decided it might be worth the effort to turn around for them.<\/p>\n

It was. I spent the next 16 minutes taking hundreds of Chukar photos, with them close and in good light. When I’ve had time to actually look at all of them, I believe the photo below will be one of my favorites.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/5000, f\/5.6, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

I don’t think I’ve ever taken a Chukar photo that looks like this one, with four birds in the frame that are sharp or sharp enough (the bird on the right isn’t quite as sharp as the others) with good eye contact from each bird. They’re in excellent light with a clean background and I like the colors and the rocky, lichen-encrusted setting.<\/p>\n

I took so many photos in such a short time I eventually left the Chukars in place and drove on down the road to look for other birds (which reminded me of one of my early bird photography mentors, Tom Webster, whose mantra was “Never leave birds to look for other birds”.) But half an hour later, when I returned to the same spot, I found the same flock again and took many more photos of them. It was a Chukar kind of morning.<\/p>\n

So, when I finally have time to wade through all of them, you’re likely to see more Chukar photos sometime soon.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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

I don’t believe I’ve ever taken a Chukar photo like this one.<\/p>\n

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