Chukar walking in the snow after a storm – Nikon D300, f8, 1/1250, ISO 500, +1.0 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 328mm, natural light
I did try to get out to photograph yesterday afternoon and by that time winter storm Lucian had dumped around 13 inches of snow here at home. It took me about 20 minutes just to remove all the snow that had piled up on my Jeep at around 9:30 am. The snow continued intermittently all day long and into the evening, I don’t have a final tally on how much snow actually fell but I’ll have to scrape more snow from my Jeep before I can go anywhere today. There are clouds overhead this morning and some more snow may fall before Lucian completely high tails it out of the area. I hope to go out shooting later in the afternoon.
That is precisely what I did six years ago today, I waited out the clouds from a snow storm and left the house before noon to head into the field to find and photograph birds. I got lucky on Antelope Island State Park when I found several Chukars wandering around close to the road foraging in the fresh snow. It paid off to go out into the field in what I would call my “off hours” which is usually mid-day when the sun is the highest because the light can be very contrasty. During the winter when the sun is low on the horizon that isn’t as much of a problem though.
Chukar running in deep snow – Nikon D300, f8, 1/1250, ISO 500, +1.0 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 300mm, natural light
I was tickled to photograph this Chukar six years ago because it showed off its subtle colors and patterns so nicely against a canvas of white snow.
So there are times when it is wise to head out into the field outside of morning and late afternoon hours when it comes to bird photography. Yesterday that didn’t work out for me because I wasn’t finding many birds at my local pond but today… who knows what I might see.
Life is good.
Mia
Click here to see more of my Chukar photos plus facts and information about this species.
The second shot is especially delightful — love the position of the Chukar as it is out for its afternoon constitutional. 🙂
I couldn’t see pictures yesterday on my ancient iPad (Safari), so I’m on the laptop today. 🙂
The snow is a perfect backdrop for this subtle charmer.
Beautiful, I hope you find birds this afternoon, the day is looking nice
Great photos. Beautiful. A very hard bird to photograph. At least that has been my experience.
What a beautiful bird. Gorgeous.
Beautiful photos Mia
Handsome! Striking colors. Thanks for sharing your snow stories and Chukars. Nice combo!
Still no pictures for me. I never had this problem until a couple of weeks ago. I have not changed anything in my
system.
Carl, what web browser do you use?