{"id":167465,"date":"2025-03-25T06:07:29","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T12:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=167465"},"modified":"2025-03-25T08:15:38","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T14:15:38","slug":"some-birds-and-critters-on-antelope-island-yesterday-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/25\/some-birds-and-critters-on-antelope-island-yesterday-morning\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Birds And Critters On Antelope Island Yesterday Morning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday morning I took a chance with my ailing pickup and risked a trip to Antelope Island. My results with birds and critters were mixed but at least I didn’t have any mechanical issues with my pickup. That could have gone either way.<\/p>\n

Most of the following photos, presented in the order they were taken, document my trip.<\/p>\n

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I found this cooperative black-tailed jackrabbit almost immediately after arriving on the island. Just prior to taking this shot the rabbit (really a hare) had been nibbling on the emerging early spring vegetation growing on the fire scar caused by last July’s wildfire near the visitor center. The scar is recovering nicely.<\/p>\n

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This is what the same area looked like last August, after the wildfire in July.<\/p>\n

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When the jackrabbit started running I attempted to get some running shots but they turned out to be slightly soft. They still document the enormous size difference between its back legs and front legs. Kangaroo-esque.<\/p>\n

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Next I found AOM, my current favorite American Kestrel, and his mate perched on their favorite dumpster in mediocre light. This is his mate – AOM was perched out of frame on the left. She spent nearly five minutes trying to throw a pellet, as she’s doing here but without success.<\/p>\n

At that point my good friend and blog follower April Olson appeared from out of nowhere. I hadn’t seen April for many months so we had an enjoyable visit for about ten minutes before realizing we were “gabbing away the best morning light”, so we each went on our way.<\/p>\n

If you know April and see her soon, ask her about redheads and cleavage… \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

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Immediately after visiting with April, I found AOM and his mate on the wrong side of the road for good light but I was able to get them both in the frame. AOM, on the right, watched politely as his mate tore apart and gobbled down a vole she’d apparently caught only moments before.<\/p>\n

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Next came a Chukar near the Frary Peak trailhead parking lot. I like the way the bird is framed by the vegetation.<\/p>\n

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Then I realized that there was another Chukar watching me photograph the first Chukar. It’s nice to see the redstem filaree blooming, finally.<\/p>\n

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The last bird I found was this Western Meadowlark that had been singing atop rabbitbrush. ‘He’ tried to fake me out by looking one way before…<\/p>\n

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taking off in the opposite direction. I managed to keep him in frame but I didn’t get a catch light in his eye in any of…<\/p>\n

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my takeoff and flight shots. In bird photography that’s just the way it sometimes goes.<\/p>\n

At the last minute during the drive home I decided to stop at Pixels Foto and Frame and pick up the two prints I’d ordered for my new camping trailer. Thanks to suggestions from my readers, I decided to order them both and swap them out whenever I feel the need for variety.<\/p>\n

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My original intention was to hang a print in the space below the TV, but it was also suggestions from my readers that helped me decide to hang the prints in front of my TV instead. Knowing me, I’ll never use the TV. I have better things to do on camping trips.<\/p>\n

Here I have the Burrowing Owl print in place, hung using Velcro on all four corners. Both prints are mounted on Gatorboard with a narrow black border so they’re lightweight and I can swap out the Burrowing Owl with the Short-eared Owl anytime I feel the urge.<\/p>\n

Before getting suggestions from my readers, I hadn’t considered having both photos printed or hanging them in front of the TV. I’m sure glad I asked for advice.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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PS – while I was on the island yesterday, I saw and heard three different pairs of Long-billed Curlews. They were much too far away for photos but I always celebrate the return of curlews to the island – photos or no photos. My friend Wayne Watson had better luck getting curlew photos on the same day up by Bear River MBR, so curlews are definitely back.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Yesterday morning I took a chance with my ailing pickup and risked a trip to Antelope Island. (11 photos)<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167471,"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":[334],"tags":[28,7775,7774,82,7776,3307,1985,323],"class_list":["post-167465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds","tag-american-kestrel","tag-antelope-island-wildfire","tag-black-tailed-jackrabbit","tag-chukar","tag-gatorboard","tag-pixels-foto-and-frame","tag-redstem-filaree","tag-western-meadowlark"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/chukar-6873-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-Hz3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167465","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=167465"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":167523,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167465\/revisions\/167523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}