{"id":14683,"date":"2014-04-03T05:46:19","date_gmt":"2014-04-03T11:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=14683"},"modified":"2025-02-07T10:43:33","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T16:43:33","slug":"mountain-plovers-technology-today-is-amazing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/04\/03\/mountain-plovers-technology-today-is-amazing\/","title":{"rendered":"Mountain Plovers – Technology Today Is Amazing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seven days shy of a year ago I found two rare Mountain Plovers in the White Rock Bay area of Antelope Island State Park<\/span><\/a> and lately I have been hoping to see them again. Both the male and the female were in breeding plumage which was wonderful to see.<\/p>\n

\"MaleMale Mountain Plover in breeding plumage – Nikon D300, f8, 1\/1250, ISO 640, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The last couple of trips to the island have made me think of how various technologies used for birding and bird photography have advanced in the last twenty five years.<\/p>\n

Twenty five years ago anyone finding a rarity would have had to drive to the nearest phone to\u00a0make a report\u00a0to other birders and today we can use our cells phones to call or text a single person or email every one who is signed up on a bird listserv immediately to notify them of a rarity while we keep the birds in sight.<\/p>\n

Within minutes people can be on the road moving towards the reported rare birds and they can easily stay in touch with people while they are on the road.<\/p>\n

Today you can place a pin on a map on Google and people can have their phones talk them through getting to those\u00a0exact coordinates.<\/p>\n

Twenty five years ago there wouldn’t have been the bird listservs that we have today on the internet where birders can instantly “chat” about rare or even common birds instead they had meetings and phone trees set up for getting in touch with other birders when rare birds were spotted.<\/p>\n

I might not even have been on that list because I am a bird photographer not a birder.<\/p>\n

Quite a few local birders and bird photographers were able to see and photograph the Mountain Plovers on Antelope Island because of messages sent to them when I hit the “send” button on my phone.<\/p>\n

Not sure about a bird’s ID? We can search the internet rapidly or use apps to help with the ID.<\/p>\n

Want to hear the call of the bird? There are apps for that too.<\/p>\n

We can pinpoint hot spot locations for\u00a0certain species\u00a0by using eBird.<\/p>\n

\"FemaleFemale Mountain Plover\u00a0– Nikon D300, f8, 1\/1600, ISO 640, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

We can take photos\u00a0with our\u00a0smart phones and instantly share them on social media with the entire world instead of impatiently waiting days & days for film to be developed.<\/p>\n

Photos of rarities can be viewed almost instantaneously across the internet and before you even leave the birds experts can weigh in on the identity.<\/p>\n

I know that last year if I had been using a film SLR camera I wouldn’t have taken as many images of the two Mountain Plovers as I did because of the cost of film and developing.<\/p>\n

Today we use digital cameras and can instantly see the results on the camera’s LCD screen where\u00a0we can see if our exposure\u00a0and sharpness are\u00a0correct and if not make adjustments and photograph them again.<\/p>\n

We can take hundreds or thousands of images and not even think about the cost of film or developing and even though we might kick our own butts for the bad images we can immediately take better ones.<\/p>\n

Our cameras have small computers that “talk” to the lenses and some DSLR’s can wirelessly send the images to our\u00a0smart phones for uploading to the internet.<\/p>\n

Yes, compared to 25 years ago the technology used for birding and bird photography today\u00a0is simply amazing.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

Seven days shy of a year ago I found two rare Mountain Plovers in the White Rock Bay area of Antelope Island State Park and lately I have been hoping to see them again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":139492,"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":[511,27,1022,2188,7646,26],"tags":[4004,2190,2366,9446,4021,4053,9316,4070,4062,2189,5841,275,1902,9448,2191,274,9445,9444,9447,2500,9449],"class_list":["post-14683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-mountain-plovers","category-rarities","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-anarhynchus-montanus","tag-apps","tag-bird-listserv","tag-bird-photography","tag-breeding-plumage","tag-ebird","tag-female","tag-male","tag-mountain-plover","tag-plover","tag-plovers","tag-rare","tag-rare-birds","tag-rarity","tag-shorebirds-2","tag-smart-phones","tag-social-media","tag-technologies","tag-technology","tag-wirelessly"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/mountain-plover-mia-mcpherson-6607.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-3OP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":68022,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/04\/07\/my-rare-mountain-plover-sighting-happened-almost-seven-years-ago\/","url_meta":{"origin":14683,"position":0},"title":"My Rare Mountain Plover Sighting Happened Almost Seven Years Ago","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 7, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"My rare Mountain Plover sighting happened almost seven years ago on Antelope Island State Park when I spotted, identified and photographed of the plovers during spring migration.","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":"Resting female Mountain Plover, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, 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2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I wanted to share a few more of the Mountain Plover images I took which are a lifer bird for me as well as being rare in Utah.","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":"Female Mountain Plover in a field on Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/mountain-plover-mia-mcpherson-5959.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/mountain-plover-mia-mcpherson-5959.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/mountain-plover-mia-mcpherson-5959.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/mountain-plover-spring-utah-mia-mcpherson-6058.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/mountain-plover-spring-utah-mia-mcpherson-6058.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/mountain-plover-spring-utah-mia-mcpherson-6058.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/mountain-plover-spring-utah-mia-mcpherson-6058.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8072,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/04\/10\/mountain-plovers-a-dream-come-true\/","url_meta":{"origin":14683,"position":3},"title":"Mountain Plovers – A Dream Come True","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"What I saw through my lens was a Mountain Plover, a bird I have long dreamed of seeing. A rarity here in Utah.","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":"Alert Mountain Plover male, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/mountain-plover-mia-mcpherson-6534.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/mountain-plover-mia-mcpherson-6534.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/mountain-plover-mia-mcpherson-6534.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/mountain-plover-mia-mcpherson-6534.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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McPherson","date":"April 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"There are a few similar species that occur in Utah and surrounding states that could be confused with Mountain Plovers.","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":"Mountain Plover delight, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/mountain-plover-adult-mia-mcpherson-5901.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/mountain-plover-adult-mia-mcpherson-5901.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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