![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/western-meadowlark-1461b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"western-meadowlark-1461b-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nFor me there’s something quite special about a meadowlark in\u00a0snow.<\/p>\n
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1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n I photographed this one in December three years ago on Antelope Island as it was soaking up some warming rays from the morning sun. I love it when they fluff up like this to keep warm in cold temperatures\u00a0and all\u00a0this snow puts an\u00a0exclamation\u00a0point on the effect for me. Seeing “his” feet buried in the snow makes my own toes cold but I realize that the feet of many birds are well adapted to cold.<\/p>\n There’s another reason\u00a0I enjoy seeing meadowlarks in snow. Western Meadowlarks were very common on the family farm in northern Montana where I grew up (in fact they’re the Montana state bird)\u00a0and even as a kid I loved them. But in the winter\u00a0it’s too damned cold up there for most sane\u00a0people and all meadowlarks so they would always migrate south for the winter months.\u00a0Which meant\u00a0I never saw them in snow.<\/p>\n So when I moved here in the late 60’s\u00a0it was a real\u00a0treat for me to find them in northern Utah during winter and I’ve appreciated their winter presence ever since. Actually we’re right on the edge of their year-round\/breeding\u00a0range boundary so on some very cold years we don’t have them either.<\/p>\n Which makes me appreciate an image like this one even more.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Notes: <\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For me there’s something quite special about a meadowlark in snow.<\/p>\n\n