{"id":167697,"date":"2025-04-10T04:21:58","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T10:21:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=167697"},"modified":"2025-04-10T05:53:12","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T11:53:12","slug":"yesterday-was-a-very-good-day-for-chukars-on-antelope-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/10\/yesterday-was-a-very-good-day-for-chukars-on-antelope-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Yesterday Was A Very Good Day For Chukars On Antelope Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

My day began and ended with Chukars, with quite a few interesting birds in-between.<\/p>\n

The following photos are presented in the order they were taken.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I found this Chukar soon after sunrise and immediately after arriving on the island proper. ‘He’ was cooperative and in wonderful light. That early in the morning the light was soft enough that it didn’t blow out the whites of his Tintic Quartzite perch, as so often happens later in the day.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He spent part of his time calling to other faraway Chukars that I could hear but not see.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But occasionally he seemed to be calling directly to me. Or at me.<\/p>\n

I didn’t see another Chukar for the next two hours and twenty six minutes, when I was already in the process of leaving the island and heading for home.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

That’s when I found this guy, almost certainly a male, tucked away on a rock pile next to a brush pile on the marina parking lot. His location wasn’t ideal for photos but it gave him enough security that he allowed me to get very close.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Close enough for a portrait that I like very much.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Eventually he was comfortable enough with my presence that he ventured out to explore the rock pile.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The rock pile was completely lacking plants of any kind but Chukars also feed on insects so based on his behavior I thought he might be searching for midges. But I never saw him catch or eat any.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After a while he came down to the gravel parking lot. That’s when he began calling to another Chukar in the rock pile that I hadn’t seen.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Eventually I spotted Chukar #2. At first, only its head was sticking out from the rocks but when I moved my pickup I could see a little more of the bird.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

By then Chukar #1 had decided that he wanted to join #2, that in this photo he’s calling softly to. But in order to do so he first had to hop down from the rock he was on. Those are midges in the air around him.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He prepared carefully…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

and then…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

he dropped into the void. Freefalling. He didn’t open his wings one tiny bit.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When he landed I cut off his feet. Dammit.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Here he’s back on the gravel of the parking lot and working his way to the other Chukar which was to his left, even though he’s looking to his right.<\/p>\n

That’s when things started to get just a little weird.<\/p>\n

By now both Chukars were so close to me I couldn’t fit even one of them in the frame. They were both very deliberately heading toward my pickup, as if they were challenging it. And me. For a few moments I thought they might go beneath my pickup.<\/p>\n

At the last second, they both veered off into the vegetation next to the shore of the marina. I never saw them again.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This is the last shot I got of either bird as they were about to disappear into the vegetation. The photo is full frame (uncropped). I’m only including it to show how close they were. A few seconds earlier they’d been significantly closer.<\/p>\n

My experience with these Chukars was a wonderful way to end my morning on the island. Made even better because I wasn’t having trouble with heat waves causing soft shots, so this time my photos were actually sharp.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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

My day began and ended with Chukars, with quite a few interesting birds in-between. (16 photos)<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167735,"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":[26,31,82,7362,7786,7785,1980,305,311],"class_list":["post-167697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island","category-birds","category-chukars","tag-alectoris-chukar","tag-antelope-island-2","tag-chukar","tag-chukar-calling","tag-chukar-portrait","tag-freefalling-chukar","tag-midges","tag-tintic-quartzite","tag-utah-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/chukar-9563b-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-HCN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167697","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=167697"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":167758,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167697\/revisions\/167758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}