Fresh snow fell on Antelope Island last night and it made for wonderful settings for the subjects I photographed this morning like this Chukar. I haven't been seeing the Chukars regularly lately so I was very pleased to see them again.
Ring-necked Pheasants are colorful upland game birds that are native to Asia and were introduced into North America for recreational hunting purposes and now occur widespread across southern Canada and in many areas of the U.S. except for some of the southern states.
A simple image from a series of images I took last year of a Chukar calling on a rocky outcropping with a snowy mountain in the background.
Near the summit of Francis Peak, elevation 9,560 feet, I spotted this Dusky Grouse male on the edge of a gravel road with a steep drop off to the west and I was able to get a few photographs of it before we motioned to a pickup truck coming down from the summit to move forward.
I don't know if the birds think the water of the Great Salt Lake looks refreshing but on a hot day like today I sure do!
I liked that this spring time Chukar perched on a rock where a few of the Redstem Filaree were visible.
I photographed this female Greater Sage-Grouse while up in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah.
Had I not seen that moving, tan blob beyond my viewfinder I could have easily missed being able to create these Chukar images. Sure, I have hundreds (if not thousands) of Chukar images but I am always looking for different poses, light conditions and settings to photograph my subjects in and this worked out very well.
The behavior of the Chukars indicates that the males are already acting territorial and fighting for the right to mate.
Chukars are not native to North America, they were introduced as game birds and in some areas they have thrived, one of those locations is Antelope Island State Park in northern Utah.
Male Ring-necked Pheasants are very colorful and sport red face wattles, iridescent ear tufts, the white neck ring and bronze colored chest and back with barring. I remember my grandfather using the pheasant feathers for the flies that he tied.