{"id":14349,"date":"2014-02-15T06:32:17","date_gmt":"2014-02-15T12:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=14349"},"modified":"2025-10-03T07:09:53","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T12:09:53","slug":"a-northern-harrier-along-the-shore-of-the-great-salt-lake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/02\/15\/a-northern-harrier-along-the-shore-of-the-great-salt-lake\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Harrier Along The Shore Of The Great Salt Lake"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NorthernNorthern Harrier female flying along Antelope Island Causeway – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/4000, ISO 640, +0.3 EV, Nikkor\u00a0 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 235mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Two years ago I could often find Northern Harriers hunting along the causeway to Antelope Island State Park and I photographed a series of images of this female Northern Harrier on February 16th of that year.<\/p>\n

She was hunting for prey in the vegetation that grows along the causeway which is mostly pigweed and rabbitbrush.<\/p>\n

\"NorthernNorthern Harrier with the Great Salt Lake in the background\u00a0– Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/2000, ISO 640,\u00a0 Nikkor\u00a0 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

The water level of the Great Salt Lake was higher in 2012 than it is now but hopefully when spring run off occurs the lake level will rise again.<\/p>\n

It has been so low this winter that feral pigs were able to escape one of the other islands in the lake and walk to Antelope Island.<\/p>\n

Those feral pigs were killed before they could introduce diseases to the animals on the island. There is an article about that here<\/span><\/a>. Basically Fremont Island was used as a game farm<\/span><\/a> by Barrow Land and Livestock and when they defaulted on the lease they left the pigs, sheep, and one cow there.<\/p>\n

I detest game farms.<\/p>\n

\"FemaleFemale Northern Harrier displaying her nictitating membrane\u00a0– Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/4000, ISO 640,\u00a0 +0.7 EV, Nikkor\u00a0 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Okay, back to this Northern Harrier.<\/p>\n

The harrier flew next to the causeway and at times she would fly in close which made for some rather nicely detailed images.<\/p>\n

In this frame the third eyelid or nictitating membrane is visible just in front of her pupil. The nictitating membrane helps to keep their eyes moistened and also helps to protect their eyes.<\/p>\n

\"NorthernNorthern Harrier female in flight\u00a0– Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/3200, ISO 640,\u00a0 +0.7 EV, Nikkor\u00a0 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 328mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Northern Harriers are a delight to see in flight and when they are hunting the action can be quite dramatic.<\/p>\n

This female didn’t catch any prey while I photographed her but she did give me plenty of opportunities for images of her in flight from the causeway to one of my favorite locations, Antelope Island State Park<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

Two years ago I could often find Northern Harriers hunting along the causeway to Antelope Island State Park and I photographed a series of images of this female Northern Harrier on February 16th of that year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[511,27,348,26],"tags":[4004,2663,765,4070,4052,4122,4005,2783,3164,4033,4169,2386,4359,5993,2465,4006,153],"class_list":["post-14349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-avian","category-northern-harriers","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-circus-hudsonius","tag-female","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-great-salt-lake","tag-harrier","tag-harriers","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-utah","tag-hen","tag-hypersaline-lake","tag-nictitating-membrane","tag-northern-harrier","tag-raptors"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/northern-harrier-great-salt-lake-mia-mcpherson-3936.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-3Jr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":18785,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/01\/24\/a-northern-harrier-searching-for-prey-along-the-antelope-island-causeway\/","url_meta":{"origin":14349,"position":0},"title":"Northern 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2015","format":false,"excerpt":"But... things seem to be leveling out now much like this female Northern Harrier in flight that I photographed along the causeway to Antelope Island State Park in northern Utah in mid January.","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":"A female Northern Harrier in flight, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-flight-mia-mcpherson-6320.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-flight-mia-mcpherson-6320.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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