{"id":22547,"date":"2014-03-07T05:14:54","date_gmt":"2014-03-07T12:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=22547"},"modified":"2014-03-07T05:14:54","modified_gmt":"2014-03-07T12:14:54","slug":"western-meadowlarks-of-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/07\/western-meadowlarks-of-spring\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Meadowlarks Of Spring"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meadowlarks have been arriving in good numbers for several weeks now but they’re\u00a0quite difficult to approach in early spring.\u00a0 Once breeding behaviors begin in earnest they seem to be a little less skittish.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, 500 f\/4 II, 1.4 tc,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Each of these images was taken just over a week ago on Antelope Island.\u00a0 Here I like how the bird has deliberately (apparently) grasped a large number of rabbitbrush stems in order to support its weight.\u00a0 The background is the Great Salt Lake.\u00a0 These birds spend so much time with their long bills buried in dirt or mud as they forage that it’s fairly unusual for me to get a such a shiny, clean bill.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

1\/2000, f\/8, ISO 500, Canon 7D, 500 f\/4 II, 1.4 tc,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

This messy beak is more typical of the species.\u00a0 In both of these images the perch is a little busy but I like the backgrounds and the contrasts in the two poses.<\/p>\n

It won’t be long until the hills of Antelope Island will be literally ringing with the songs of the meadowlark.\u00a0 I sometimes pull off to the side of the road, turn the engine off and take a short walk just to enjoy the glorious sound of their calls over the\u00a0stillness of the morning.<\/p>\n

That’s an experience I could have\u00a0later this morning\u00a0if these blasted clouds would ever clear out!<\/p>\n

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

Meadowlarks have been arriving in good numbers for several weeks now but they’re quite difficult to approach in early spring. Once breeding behaviors begin in earnest they seem to be a little less skittish.<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22548,"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":[3,334,370],"tags":[31,499,669,311],"class_list":["post-22547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island","category-birds","category-western-meadowlarks","tag-antelope-island-2","tag-rabbitbrush","tag-sturnella-neglecta","tag-utah-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/western-meadowlark-4549-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-5RF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22547","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=22547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}