![\"chukar](\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/chukar-0617-ron-dudley1.jpg\" "\\"chukar")
<\/p>\nI often enjoy elements of incongruity in my images, particularly birds in unexpected settings.\u00a0 Chukars prefer steep, rocky, mountainous and dry terrain so in my experience with them it is atypical to catch them in a photograph with a\u00a0body of water in the background.\u00a0 When it’s hot, as it is now,\u00a0these birds drink large amounts of water but of course the Great Salt Lake is much too saline for them to drink from.\u00a0 So they spend nearly all their time higher up on the rocky slopes and drink from the fresh water springs in the area.<\/p>\n
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1\/1600, f\/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n However, there is one thing that draws them to the shore of the lake this time of year – brine flies.\u00a0 Chukars are almost exclusively\u00a0vegetarians and eat mostly leaves and seeds although they’ll consume insects “occasionally”.\u00a0 But apparently they can’t resist the bounty of hordes of brine flies found along the shore of the lake during July and August (I’ve posted a shot here<\/a> of a Chukar gorging on these flies)\u00a0.<\/p>\n I found this bird and several others along the shoreline yesterday.\u00a0 While I didn’t actually observe them consuming flies this time I’m confident that it was the flies that attracted them to the shore.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I often enjoy elements of incongruity in my images, particularly birds in unexpected settings.\u00a0 Chukars prefer steep, rocky, mountainous and dry terrain so in my experience with them it is atypical to catch them in a photograph with a\u00a0body of water in the background.\u00a0 When it’s hot, as it is now,\u00a0these birds drink large amounts of water but of course the Great Salt Lake is much too saline for them to drink from.\u00a0 So they spend nearly all their time higher up on the rocky slopes and drink from the fresh water springs in the area. 1\/1600, f\/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc However, there is one thing that draws them to the shore of the lake this time of year – brine flies.\u00a0 Chukars are almost exclusively\u00a0vegetarians and eat mostly leaves and seeds although they’ll consume insects “occasionally”.\u00a0 But apparently they can’t resist the bounty of hordes of brine flies found along the shore of the lake during July and August (I’ve posted a shot here of a Chukar gorging on these flies)\u00a0. I found this bird and several others along the shoreline yesterday.\u00a0 While I didn’t actually observe them consuming flies this time I’m confident that it was the flies that attracted them to the shore. Ron<\/p>\n