{"id":36033,"date":"2015-12-22T06:07:11","date_gmt":"2015-12-22T13:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=36033"},"modified":"2015-12-22T11:22:12","modified_gmt":"2015-12-22T18:22:12","slug":"a-western-meadowlark-performing-in-the-snow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/22\/a-western-meadowlark-performing-in-the-snow\/","title":{"rendered":"A Western Meadowlark Performing In The Snow"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a Montana\u00a0farm boy I have a special affinity for meadowlarks in the snow – not because we had them there during winter but because we didn’t. Western Meadowlarks are almost everywhere up there during summer but it’s just too damned cold for them in the winter near the Canadian border in northwest Montana so\u00a0those birds\u00a0migrate south. But here in Utah many of our meadowlarks hang around all year so it isn’t unusual to see them in the snow. And I love it when I do.<\/p>\n

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\"western<\/p>\n

1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

I found this bird four days ago on Antelope Island. By then it had warmed up slightly after our recent big snow-dump but this\u00a0one was still fluffed up in the morning chill. There were thick\u00a0puffy pillows\u00a0of snow on the sagebrush where they like to perch so the bird had little choice but to get its feet cold and wet. Here it’s holding one of them out of the snow.<\/p>\n

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\"western<\/p>\n

1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

At one point it started eating snow but ever time it dipped that long, sharp bill into the snow I lost the catch light in its eye so I didn’t include one of those images.<\/p>\n

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\"western<\/p>\n

1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

Eventually the bird stood up and stretched its legs in preparation for…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

a wing and tail stretch. I lost the catch light here too but included the image so you could see what caused this next silly pose.<\/p>\n

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\"western<\/p>\n

1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the middle of the stretch the bird slipped in the snow and in its attempt to recover…<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

it lifted its left foot and brought it forward quickly. The clump of snow in its claws…<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

was flung forward through the air\u00a0and beneath its face. But it recovered nicely and settled back down into the snow.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

Soon the bird gave me a nice wing-stretch…<\/p>\n

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\"western<\/p>\n

1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

and then started looking left and right, which indicated to me that it was probably about ready to take off. I was right and I tried to be\u00a0ready for it but…<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

1\/3200, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was disappointed that it took off slightly away from me. I still like the image for the wing and leg\/feet\u00a0positions, good light on the entire bird and the flying snow behind it.<\/p>\n

Recent rains (it’s been raining all night) have melted most of our snow but we’re supposed to get more of that blessed\/cursed white stuff beginning tonight and lasting through Christmas Day. My old snow blower died during the last storm\u00a0and the local stores ran out of\u00a0stock so I’m on the waiting list for a new one that should arrive tomorrow. That’s cutting the timing a little close but it’s possible that I’ll get it before the snow builds up too much.<\/p>\n

This old bird photographer\u00a0truly hates\u00a0shoveling snow!<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

PS – Oh, oh, it’s now (8:AM)\u00a0snowing pretty hard and it’s sticking and I won’t have the new snowblower for at least another day and a half. I may be in trouble.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

As a Montana farm boy I have a special affinity for meadowlarks in the snow – not because we had them there during winter but because we didn’t.<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36038,"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":[3,334,1493,370],"tags":[31,2774,220,286,297,669,311,323],"class_list":["post-36033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island","category-birds","category-montana-favorite-locations","category-western-meadowlarks","tag-antelope-island-2","tag-eating-snow","tag-montana-2","tag-snow","tag-stretch","tag-sturnella-neglecta","tag-utah-2","tag-western-meadowlark"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/western-meadowlark-1413-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-9nb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36033","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=36033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}