{"id":100621,"date":"2022-03-13T05:24:25","date_gmt":"2022-03-13T11:24:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=100621"},"modified":"2022-03-13T05:24:25","modified_gmt":"2022-03-13T11:24:25","slug":"looking-for-my-first-of-year-sage-thrasher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/03\/13\/looking-for-my-first-of-year-sage-thrasher\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking For My First Of Year Sage Thrasher"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FluffyFluffy Sage Thrasher adult warming up on a rock \u2013 Nikon D810, f8, 1\/1600, ISO 400, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

March 13th is an anniversary of sorts for me. The date is the earliest that I have seen and<\/em> photographed a Sage Thrasher in northern Utah. The year was 2015 and the location was on the east side of Antelope Island State Park<\/span><\/a>. I spotted and pointed out two Sage Thrashers on that bright, late winter morning. One thrasher was not cooperative but the one in the photo above was as it perched on a rock warming up in the morning sun in front of the Great Salt Lake.<\/p>\n

I can barely wait until I hear my first of year Sage Thrasher singing<\/span><\/a> from the top of a rock or sagebrush. It won’t happen today because it is supposed to be rainy but I know it won’t be much longer until I hear a “Mountain Mockingbird” singing.<\/p>\n

Due to severity of my allergic reactions to the bites of no-see-ums (biting gnats) I have reduced my visits Antelope Island in the spring when the gnats first hatch. The good news is that I know where I can find Sage Thrashers in other areas where I don’t have to be bitten by the gnats to photograph these thrashers.<\/p>\n

Listening to the Sage Thrashers is an earful of joy. Watching them display in early spring is a visual delight. Sage Thrashers aren’t brightly colored birds like the Western Tanagers, Mountain Bluebirds or the hummingbirds that arrive here in spring but they have a vibrancy of their own and part of that vibrancy is contained in the frequency of their songs.<\/p>\n

The next weather front coming up from the south may be the push the thrashers need to migrate into northern Utah.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Sage Thrasher photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March 13th is an anniversary of sorts for me. The date is the earliest that I have seen and photographed a Sage Thrasher in northern Utah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[511,27,1148,103,26],"tags":[4004,11978,6242,788,4005,5178,5465,821,2270,2339,4273,4164,4921,4003,4613,735,4985,3996,373],"class_list":["post-100621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-sage-thrashers","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-desert-island","tag-first-of-season","tag-first-of-year","tag-great-salt-lake","tag-lake","tag-migrate","tag-mimids-2","tag-mountain-mockingbird","tag-mud-flats","tag-mudflats","tag-oreoscoptes-montanus","tag-rock","tag-sage-thrasher","tag-thrasher","tag-thrashers","tag-warming-up","tag-water","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/sage-thrasher-adult-on-rock-mia-mcpherson-0248.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-qaV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":51195,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/03\/09\/looking-for-the-first-of-the-year-sage-thrashers-to-arrive\/","url_meta":{"origin":100621,"position":0},"title":"Looking For The First Of The Year Sage Thrashers To Arrive","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 9, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I can barely wait to see my first Sage Thrasher of the year warming up on a rock in front of the Great Salt Lake, scurrying along on the ground, perched on top of sage or rabbitbrush singing or displaying.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Early Sage Thrasher warming up on a rock in front of the Great Salt Lake, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/sage-thrasher-first-of-year-mia-mcpherson-0261.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/sage-thrasher-first-of-year-mia-mcpherson-0261.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/sage-thrasher-first-of-year-mia-mcpherson-0261.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/sage-thrasher-first-of-year-mia-mcpherson-0261.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":20945,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/03\/14\/first-of-the-year-sage-thrasher-on-antelope-island\/","url_meta":{"origin":100621,"position":1},"title":"First of the Year Sage Thrasher on Antelope Island!","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I was absolutely delighted to spot a pair of Sage Thrashers on Antelope Island yesterday because I have been anxiously awaiting their arrival since they left last fall.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"First of the year Sage Thrasher, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/sage-thrasher-perched-mia-mcpherson-0233.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/sage-thrasher-perched-mia-mcpherson-0233.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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They forage mainly on the ground for insects, though they do eat berries at times.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sage Thrasher juvenile on a rock, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/sage-thrasher-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-5100.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/sage-thrasher-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-5100.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/sage-thrasher-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-5100.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/sage-thrasher-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-5100.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":66616,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/03\/09\/juvenile-immature-and-adult-sage-thrashers\/","url_meta":{"origin":100621,"position":5},"title":"Juvenile, Immature And Adult Sage Thrashers","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 9, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The comparisons I have made between juvenile, immature and adult Sage Thrashers are basic, there are more ways to determine their age but I wanted to keep the comparisons simple.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Sage Thrasher on Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/sage-thrasher-juvenile-on-rock-mia-mcpherson-5075.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/sage-thrasher-juvenile-on-rock-mia-mcpherson-5075.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/sage-thrasher-juvenile-on-rock-mia-mcpherson-5075.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/sage-thrasher-juvenile-on-rock-mia-mcpherson-5075.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}