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<\/a><\/p>\n1\/1250\/ f\/8, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Yesterday morning I spent some quality time with an obviously mated pair. When I stopped to photograph them it only took them a few minutes to\u00a0accept my presence and\u00a0soon they completely ignored me.\u00a0At one point I thought they actually might walk under my pickup.<\/p>\n This bird isn’t doing much of anything interesting but the perch really caught my eye because with its concave shape\u00a0it reminds me a little\u00a0of an old metate (grinding stone) like the ones we used to find in southern Utah when I was working for the\u00a0Utah Museum of Natural History.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200\/ f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n As they were foraging for food in the grasses it was difficult to get eye contact in my photos. This is one of the relatively few times I caught a bird watching me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/640, f\/10, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 227mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n I include this shot to give readers a feeling for how close these Chukars were to me. I’m shooting down at the bird at about a 45\u00b0 angle and at times they walked inside the shadow of my pickup that we see at lower left. And even that close this one is puffed up in a relaxed pose.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/640, f\/10, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 220mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Males are larger than females and I believe this to be the female of the pair. While she was foraging she suddenly noticed a couple of small clumps of feathers on her belly that needed her attention. Here she’s working over the larger of the two clumps in an apparent attempt to separate the individual feathers that were stuck together.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/640, f\/10, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 220mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n After she released the feathers she carefully inspected her handiwork but as we can see they were still clumped together so…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/640, f\/10, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 220mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n she worked on them again for a while.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n