![\"willet-4025\"](\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/willet-4025.jpg\" "\\"willet-4025\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a01\/640, f\/7.1, ISO 640, 500 f\/4<\/em><\/p>\n The Willets\u00a0have finally come up on the island for their mating activities (as opposed to\u00a0the shoreline for recuperation after migration) and I like to try to catch them perched high on the\u00a0sagebrush where they call loudly to other Willets.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n Western Meadowlarks are in\u00a0their glory right now and their\u00a0distinctive songs reverberate all over the island.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a01\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/p>\n I got closer to this one than\u00a0I usually can.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a01\/1600, f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4<\/p>\n \u00a0This Loggerhead Shrike was grooming\u00a0peacefully when I noticed a distinct change in its behavior.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a01\/1250, f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4<\/p>\n A Common Raven flew low overhead and this was the shrike’s reaction.\u00a0 It flattened its body out almost into a bullet shape and pointed that bullet at the raven as it passed.\u00a0 I’m guessing it was an instinctive behavior to present the smallest profile possible to a larger bird that might be a potential\u00a0threat.\u00a0 It was comical to watch it turn as the raven flew by to keep its body pointed in the larger birds direction.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a01\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/p>\n I’m always happy to catch a Chukar perched on a\u00a0boulder, especially when it isn’t one of the Tintic Quartzite rocks that are usually\u00a0bright white and make a difficult perch to expose properly.\u00a0 This time of year Chukars commonly call from these boulders but until\u00a0lately I’d never seen one perched in a tree or bush.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a01\/1600, f\/8, ISO 500, 500 f\/4<\/p>\n But\u00a0recently I’ve found two Chukars perched on the top of sagebrush.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a01\/1000, f\/8, ISO 500, 500 f\/4<\/p>\n This is the same bird and I include the image just for fun and also to illustrate an interesting behavior.\u00a0 Chukars are quite reluctant to fly and will scurry away through the brush when presented with a threat.\u00a0 Even when they leave their large boulder\u00a0perches they almost never fly.\u00a0\u00a0Instead they jump from rock to rock and then to the ground – which is why I sometimes call them “rockhoppers”.\u00a0 This behavior is so deeply ingrained that when this bird decided to leave the\u00a0sagebrush it didn’t fly – instead\u00a0it worked its way down to the ground by crawling\u00a0through\u00a0all the thick twigs and branches in the middle of the sagebrush.\u00a0 Here it’s just beginning to descend – in later shots you can barely see the bird through all the branches.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a01\/1600, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/p>\n \u00a0These last four shots were taken at Bear River MBR\u00a0last week.\u00a0 I can almost never resist firing away at Cinnamon Teals – for me\u00a0the males are\u00a0one of the most striking of all the ducks.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a01\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/p>\n \u00a0I found this image interesting because of what it illustrates about how American Avocets feed.\u00a0 You can see invertebrates held in place between the two mandibles by the surface tension of a film of water.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a01\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/p>\n A large crop of the same image\u00a0for a better look at this interesting feeding behavior.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a01\/6400, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/p>\n \u00a0The intensely red eye of Clark’s and Western Grebes always catches my attention.\u00a0 This one is a Clark’s.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n