Last night I knew today would be a high pressure day because I spent so much time working on “the project” yesterday I didn’t get a post ready for publishing this morning and I still had to pick out and send some possible substitute images to my client. So I had a hard time sleeping last night and ended up getting up 2 AM in an attempt to get everything done on time. Wouldn’t you know it, when I got up the internet was down and when it eventually came back up it was extremely slow so I’ve really been struggling. To make matters worse I’ve spent so much time sitting at my computer lately my bad back is killing me. My old friend Murphy is working overtime this morning. <\/em><\/p>\n I know, I’m whining…<\/em><\/p>\n I’m sure\u00a0that’s way more than you wanted to know. But rerunning these photos, some of which I’ll be sending to my client, is saving me some valuable time. Besides, most current blog followers have never seen them and I like them a lot for reasons I’ll explain.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Antelope Island is special for both its biological and geological diversity. Some of the oldest rocks in Utah, called the Farmington Canyon Complex, are exposed on the south two thirds of the island but rarely exposed elsewhere in the state because they’re an extremely old (1.7 billion years) igneous Precambrian “basement” layer covered by very thick layers of mostly sedimentary strata. The Farmington Canyon Complex is composed of rocks of a variety of compositions and colors (thus the name “complex”) and one of them is this very dark rock exposed near the turnoff to the Frary Peak Trailhead that I believe is called amphibolite gneiss (geologists, please correct me if I’m wrong.)<\/p>\n I love photographing raptors on natural perches and they don’t come any more natural than this nearly primordial rock exposure. The young hawk and its sibling that it was still hanging around with spent several weeks in this area of the island back in the summer of 2012, On this particular morning I was delighted to find this one hunting voles in the grasses below the rocks, especially when ‘he’ allowed me a close approach.<\/p>\n Here he appears to have spotted a presumed vole and is about to go after it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n I caught him during launch and…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n immediately after.\u00a0Normally this isn’t my favorite wing position but I’ll make an exception here because it allowed me to crop the photo to include both the hawk and so much of the ancient rocks that have so much meaning for me.<\/p>\n When I first started photographing birds I was shallow enough to dislike bird “whitewash” on their perches. I can’t explain why I didn’t like it, I just didn’t. But now I see it as a sign of healthy bird numbers and a thriving environment so over the years whitewash has become a positive rather than a negative for me.<\/p>\n Bird whitewash on 1.7 billion year old rocks with a handsome young hawk in flight thrown in for good measure. For me my photos don’t get much better than that.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"red](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-0722-ron-dudley1.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-0722-ron-dudley1\\"")
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