{"id":28919,"date":"2015-01-12T06:52:21","date_gmt":"2015-01-12T13:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=28919"},"modified":"2015-01-12T07:46:13","modified_gmt":"2015-01-12T14:46:13","slug":"birds-in-snow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2015\/01\/12\/birds-in-snow\/","title":{"rendered":"Birds In Snow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Depending on conditions snow can\u00a0seem to be a\u00a0magic wonderland for birds to frolic in or be a dire threat to their survival.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"ring-necked<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/1250, f\/9, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon<\/em> EF500mm f\/4L IS\u00a0USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

When conditions are sunny and not too cold many birds appear to\u00a0take snow in stride and almost seem to enjoy it. Ring-necked Pheasants are well adapted to snow and cold (they do particularly well in the Dakotas) and can be relatively easy to spot and photograph with the brilliant colors of the males against the white background. I was happy to get both of these birds sharp as they ran through the snow.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"chukar<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a01\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D, Canon<\/em> EF500mm f\/4L IS\u00a0USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here the featureless and slightly crusted snow that the Chukar is walking on seems benign enough but that\u00a0can be\u00a0far from the truth.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"chukar<\/p>\n

1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D, Canon<\/em> EF500mm f\/4L IS\u00a0USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

They often fall through the\u00a0snow surface\u00a0and it’s a real struggle to make any headway. Chukars seldom fly and they must range far and wide to\u00a0obtain enough food, especially in these conditions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"red-tailed<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a01\/800, f\/5.6, ISO 640, Canon 7D, Canon<\/em> EF500mm f\/4L IS\u00a0USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

I worried about this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk.\u00a0 A heavy, wet snow had been falling all night and into the morning (it’s still snowing as you can see by the flakes in front of the bird). The hawk was wet and its feathers were a mess.\u00a0 It was attempting to preen but in these conditions it was largely\u00a0a losing proposition. Temperatures often drop precipitously at night and when that happens to a wet bird its outlook can be bleak.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"chukar<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a01\/200, f\/18, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon<\/em> EF500mm f\/4L IS\u00a0USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here you see a survival strategy used by some birds. These Chukars were huddled together at the base of a bush where the snow was thin in an effort to conserve heat in the brisk, freezing breeze. There was lots of snow which makes it difficult for them to find food. To do so they plunge their heads through the snow in an attempt to reach the surface of the ground where there may be seeds. This process leaves holes in the snow, one of which can be seen at lower right.<\/p>\n

It isn’t easy being a bird.<\/p>\n

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

Depending on conditions snow can seem to be a magic wonderland for birds to frolic in or be a dire threat to their survival.<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28923,"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":[334,352,450,630],"tags":[82,451,560,286],"class_list":["post-28919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds","category-chukars","category-red-tailed-hawks","category-ring-necked-pheasants","tag-chukar","tag-red-tailed-hawk","tag-ring-necked-pheasant","tag-snow"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/ring-necked-pheasant-8465-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-7wr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28919","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=28919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}