{"id":169681,"date":"2025-09-25T06:15:52","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T12:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=169681"},"modified":"2025-09-25T20:34:32","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T02:34:32","slug":"some-new-developments-personal-and-otherwise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/25\/some-new-developments-personal-and-otherwise\/","title":{"rendered":"Some New Developments, Personal And Otherwise"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Almost a month ago I announced that Feathered Photography was &#8220;bowing out&#8221;. It was my firm intention that it would be a permanent and irrevocable move &#8211; for <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/28\/feathered-photography-is-bowing-out\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reasons I explained<\/a><\/span>. At some point in the near future, Feathered Photography would be gone from the internet &#8211; including all of my old posts.<\/p>\n<p>Primarily for two reasons, I&#8217;m modifying that decision.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Readers keep reaching out to me, primarily via email and private messages, just checking in to say that they miss my posts and the camaraderie generated in the comments by folks who became part of a special community over the last 15 years of Feathered Photography. Those messages have touched my heart and reminded me that I miss the same things. Not that I needed reminding.<\/li>\n<li>As several have pointed out, search engine results that have to do with bird behaviors often return old Feathered Photography posts in the #1 slot. If not #1, close to it. In my book that&#8217;s nature and science education that Feathered Photography is contributing to, as long as it&#8217;s active. It goes against the grain of this retired teacher to shut it down completely.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, I&#8217;m going to keep Feathered Photography active for the foreseeable future. And it&#8217;s now my intention to publish new posts &#8211; not daily, not weekly, not on a schedule of any kind. But only when I feel like it and the opportunity arises. That way, the pressure (admittedly the pressure is self-imposed but it&#8217;s there and at times it can be overwhelming) is gone but I can still contribute when I have something worthy to contribute. And I can keep in occasional touch with my blog followers. I&#8217;ve missed you guys.<\/p>\n<p>With that thought in mind I recently visited Antelope Island for the first time in months to see what I could find.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"169682\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/25\/some-new-developments-personal-and-otherwise\/burrowing-owl-4974-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/burrowing-owl-4974-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"720,900\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;5.6&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;RON DUDLEY&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon EOS R5&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1757944248&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;700&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;1600&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.000625&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"burrowing owl 4974 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/burrowing-owl-4974-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-169682 size-full\" title=\"burrowing-owl-4974-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/burrowing-owl-4974-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/burrowing-owl-4974-ron-dudley.jpg 720w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/burrowing-owl-4974-ron-dudley-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/burrowing-owl-4974-ron-dudley-120x150.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>1\/1600, f\/5.6, ISO 1600, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I didn&#8217;t find much, other than this Burrowing Owl that was hunting by hopscotching from one sagebrush to another. Most of the time &#8216;he&#8217; was looking down but occasionally he&#8217;d look back at me to make sure I wasn&#8217;t up to no good. Eventually he flew off to the north.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"169683\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/25\/some-new-developments-personal-and-otherwise\/new-visitor-center-0904-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/new-visitor-center-0904-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1100,733\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;5.6&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;RON DUDLEY&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon EOS 7D Mark II&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1757903854&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;100&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;800&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.00025&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"new visitor center 0904 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/new-visitor-center-0904-ron-dudley-1024x682.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-169683 size-full\" title=\"new-visitor-center-0904-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/new-visitor-center-0904-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1100\" height=\"733\" srcset=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/new-visitor-center-0904-ron-dudley.jpg 1100w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/new-visitor-center-0904-ron-dudley-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/new-visitor-center-0904-ron-dudley-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/new-visitor-center-0904-ron-dudley-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/new-visitor-center-0904-ron-dudley-150x100.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I know that many of my readers, even many of those from out of state, have been to Antelope Island so I thought some of you might be interested in the progress being made on the construction of the new visitor center. It will be five times the size of the old visitor center and cost $13 million. It&#8217;s scheduled to open in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s bigger than it looks.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"169684\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/25\/some-new-developments-personal-and-otherwise\/new-visitor-center-5354-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/new-visitor-center-5354-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1100,738\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;5.6&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;RON DUDLEY&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon EOS R5&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1757947548&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;700&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;1000&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.000125&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"new visitor center 5354 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/new-visitor-center-5354-ron-dudley-1024x687.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-169684 size-full\" title=\"new-visitor-center-5354-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/new-visitor-center-5354-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1100\" height=\"738\" srcset=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/new-visitor-center-5354-ron-dudley.jpg 1100w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/new-visitor-center-5354-ron-dudley-300x201.jpg 300w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/new-visitor-center-5354-ron-dudley-1024x687.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/new-visitor-center-5354-ron-dudley-768x515.jpg 768w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/new-visitor-center-5354-ron-dudley-150x101.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Another look at the new center, from a different angle. I couldn&#8217;t help but wonder if the lone bull bison near the center of the photo was acting as a fire lookout, after the devastating <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2024\/07\/24\/a-burrowing-owl-and-a-wildfire-on-antelope-island-yesterday\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wildfire last summer<\/a><\/span> that was reportedly caused by the construction crew.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And now for a change of pace.<\/p>\n<p>Followers of Feathered Photography have become well acquainted with my daughter Shannon&#8217;s struggles following a fall in her kitchen that caused a devastating traumatic brain injury ten years ago. So I thought some of you would be interested in another health challenge she&#8217;s been dealing with.<\/p>\n<p>She&#8217;s been having severe pain in her hips and upper legs for years, pain that numerous doctors thought was caused by an arthritic spine. It turns out they were wrong. Instead, she&#8217;d been suffering from arthritic hips for decades. Recently she found out that she needed to have both hips replaced as soon as possible.<\/p>\n<p>So earlier this month Shannon and her husband traveled to NYC to have both procedures done at the same time. The timing was a little ominous because the surgery was done on September 11th only blocks from the site of the Twin Towers but the surgery went well and her recovery has been nothing short of miraculous.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"169685\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/25\/some-new-developments-personal-and-otherwise\/shannon-at-mj-play-on-broadway\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/shannon-at-MJ-play-on-broadway.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"675,900\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"shannon at MJ play on broadway\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/shannon-at-MJ-play-on-broadway.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-169685 size-full\" title=\"shannon-at-MJ-play-on-broadway\" src=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/shannon-at-MJ-play-on-broadway.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"675\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/shannon-at-MJ-play-on-broadway.jpg 675w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/shannon-at-MJ-play-on-broadway-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/shannon-at-MJ-play-on-broadway-113x150.jpg 113w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 675px) 100vw, 675px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This is Shannon on September 14th at a matinee of MJ the Musical (about Michael Jackson&#8217;s 1992 Dangerous World Tour) at the Neil Simon Theater on Broadway, only three days after having both hips replaced.<\/p>\n<p>They flew home to Las Vegas a week after surgery. I talked to her a couple of days ago and she told me that she&#8217;d been walking around her home without the aid of a walker or cane for several days already. She&#8217;s still in some pain but it&#8217;s manageable. Her biggest inconvenience is having to use some fancy-ass &#8220;ice machine&#8221; (it doesn&#8217;t use ice, it just generates cold) on her hips, four times a day &#8211; 20 minutes each hip.<\/p>\n<p>It seems that hip replacement surgery has come a long way recently.<\/p>\n<p>Ron<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Almost a month ago I announced that Feathered Photography was &#8220;bowing out&#8221;. (4 photos)<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/25\/some-new-developments-personal-and-otherwise\/\"><span>Continue reading<\/span><i class=\"crycon-right-dir\"><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169717,"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":[62,7887,7888,7886],"class_list":["post-169681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds","tag-burrowing-owl","tag-double-hip-replacement-surgery","tag-mj-the-musical-on-broadway","tag-new-antelope-island-visitor-center"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/burrowing-owl-4974-horizontal-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-I8N","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169681","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=169681"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169732,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169681\/revisions\/169732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}