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<\/p>\nI just never know what I’ll find, or find out, during a morning of attempted bird photography. Yesterday provided ample evidence of that.<\/p>\n
Largely because of coronavirus-related restrictions and events it had been many weeks since I’d been to either Antelope Island or Farmington Bay WMA so yesterday morning I decided to pay them each a visit. The island was first on my agenda and then I visited Farmington on my way home. Birds were more numerous than they’d been for a very long time but in general Lady Luck wasn’t with me, in part because the morning wind was blowing so most birds were hunkered down out of sight. That’s just the way it is with bird photography.<\/p>\n
But I did find out some interesting, and in at least one case disturbing, stuff.<\/p>\n
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My morning started out with a bang, or perhaps I should say with a roar. While still drinking coffee and trying to wake up I found this calm and trusting Willet on a rock. But at the same time I spotted the Willet I noticed two motorcycles and a car traveling in a tight group and headed my way.<\/p>\n
To get a shooting angle on the Willet I had to pass it in my pickup, turn around, and then come back which I did in a crazy hurry because I knew, I just knew<\/em>, that the car and motorcycles would turn off the main road, come my way and scare off the Willet before I could get off a shot. Willets are plain looking birds while perched but I was after a takeoff shot that showed off its flashy black and white wings.<\/p>\n I didn’t even have time to turn my engine off when I stopped (I never<\/em> leave it running while photographing birds.) While I was still rolling to a stop I stuck my lens out my window, acquired focus and barely had time to fire off four shots in a burst which took .4 of a second.<\/p>\n This is the third shot in the burst.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n And this is the fourth.<\/p>\n The car and motorcycles passed within about 12′ of the Willet and scared it off before I had time to compose carefully for a takeoff shot so of course I cut off its wings and didn’t leave enough room in front of the bird.<\/p>\n Before that I’d only seen one other vehicle all morning. The timing sucked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n My next good chance with a bird came with this Western Meadowlark. I didn’t see it on the ground along the edge of the road to my left as I drove very slowly because it was buried in the vegetation but it called so suddenly and loudly I actually jumped in surprise.<\/p>\n When I stopped it hopped a few inches off the ground onto this bent stem facing to its left which is the direction I figured it would most likely take off.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n But at the last second it looked to its right, crouched slightly and…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n took off in that direction instead. So not only did I not leave enough room on the left, the bird took off at such a steep angle vertically that I also cut off its left wing.<\/p>\n I had other chances with a few other birds while I was on the island but none of them turned out to be very good photos. By then high clouds were moving in from the east and when the wind suddenly died down the biting gnats came out with a vengeance so I was more than ready to slowly meander back to the causeway and head for gnatless Farmington.<\/p>\n Those damn gnats will ruin your fun on the island every time.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n But it was a gorgeous morning looking west as I looped around toward the causeway.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Much of the Great Salt Lake north of the causeway was teeming with hundreds of thousands of migrating Eared Grebes, often with a few Horned Grebes thrown in for good measure.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n They stay well away from the hubbub of the causeway so there’s really no opportunity to photograph individual birds but their numbers are truly jaw-dropping.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Here’s another view in better light. Every tiny dot we see on the water is a bird and we’re seeing only a very small portion of the vast lake.<\/p>\n At this point a quick geography lesson is called for to provide proper context for the photo and unsettling information that follow. I took this photo looking north from the causeway. Most of the mountainous land mass in the far distance is the Promontory Mountains, a peninsula jutting down into the lake from the north. But notice the slightly redder, lower elevation portion directly in front of the higher mountains – that’s Fremont Island.<\/p>\n Three thousand acre Fremont Island is the lake’s third largest island (after Antelope and Stansbury Islands) and it’s privately owned. But it’s extremely remote and difficult to reach, even for its owners. That fact relates to the following photo.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Yesterday I was shocked when I saw this brand new access to the lake and mudflats on the north side of the causeway just east of the “second bridge” so I made some inquiries of folks in the know to find out what the hell was going on.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/willet-0566-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"willet-0566-ron-dudley\\"")
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