{"id":37247,"date":"2016-03-20T05:39:52","date_gmt":"2016-03-20T11:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=37247"},"modified":"2025-12-06T10:59:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T16:59:00","slug":"chukars-above-the-great-salt-lake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/03\/20\/chukars-above-the-great-salt-lake\/","title":{"rendered":"Chukars Above The Great Salt Lake"},"content":{"rendered":"

Both of these Chukars above the Great Salt Lake were photographed on the east side of Antelope Island State Park this month.<\/p>\n

\"ChukarChukar with the Great Salt Lake – Nikon D810, f8, 1\/640, ISO 250, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The photo of the Chukar above was taken yesterday with clear skies and bright sunlight lighting up the lake in the background. It seemed that the Chukar was just warming up in the sunlight. The tans tones in the background is the exposed lake bed, or mud flats, caused by the rapidly receding water levels of the lake.<\/p>\n

\"WindWind blown Chukar – Nikon D810, f10, 1\/1000, ISO 250, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light <\/span><\/p>\n

This Chukar photo was taken in early March not to far away from where the first image was taken. The skies were clear and the sun was shining brightly.<\/p>\n

The blue in the background is water near the shore of the Great Salt Lake and the tan is the exposed lake bed. There are areas where there are acres and acres of the exposed mudflats due to our drought and excessive water consumption from the rivers that feed the lake.<\/p>\n

When I first visited Utah in 2008 to photograph on Antelope Island if I had photographed these Chukars<\/span><\/a> in the exact same locations both backgrounds would have been entirely blue because the lake was much higher back then. The lake is drying up and we need to find a way to save it.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

Both of these Chukars above the Great Salt Lake were photographed on the east side of Antelope Island State Park this month. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":165360,"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":[511,27,442,1022,26],"tags":[4004,4146,445,4773,4005,4104,401,4989],"class_list":["post-37247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-avian","category-chukars","category-davis-county-utah","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-alectoris-chukar","tag-chukar","tag-chukars","tag-great-salt-lake","tag-perched","tag-upland-game-birds","tag-wind-blown"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/chukar-great-salt-lake-mia-mcpherson-9225.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-9GL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14542,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/03\/10\/chukars-on-antelope-island-state-park\/","url_meta":{"origin":37247,"position":0},"title":"Chukars on Antelope Island State Park","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"After seeing few Chukars on Antelope Island State Park over the winter it is a delight to see them perching on rocks, preening, calling and warming up in the first rays of sunlight on the island again.","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":"Preening Chukar on a Tintic Quartzite boulder, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/chukar-preening-mia-mcpherson-3682.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/chukar-preening-mia-mcpherson-3682.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Antelope Island Chukars don't just attract out of town visitors to the island, they still call in locals like myself to see, hear and photograph them.","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":"Chukar calling from a hilltop on Antelope Island State Park, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/chukar-calling-mia-mcpherson-7952.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/chukar-calling-mia-mcpherson-7952.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/chukar-calling-mia-mcpherson-7952.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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