{"id":4576,"date":"2012-03-02T15:21:51","date_gmt":"2012-03-02T22:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=4576"},"modified":"2026-01-06T14:02:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T20:02:41","slug":"female-horned-lark-and-a-long-tailed-duck-friday-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/03\/02\/female-horned-lark-and-a-long-tailed-duck-friday-photos\/","title":{"rendered":"Female Horned Lark And A Long-tailed Duck ~ Friday Photos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It snowed last night and the ground here was covered in white but the clouds were disappearing so off I went to photograph whatever I might find on Antelope Island State Park. I was hoping that it had as much; if not more, snow than had fallen here at home but there was less of the white powdery stuff out there.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-166472 size-full\" title=\"Female Horned Lark balancing on a sunflower seed head, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-female-sunflower-mia-mcpherson-6202.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-female-sunflower-mia-mcpherson-6202.jpg\" alt=\"Female Horned Lark balancing on a sunflower seed head, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah\" width=\"850\" height=\"607\" data-id=\"11889\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20850%20607%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-female-sunflower-mia-mcpherson-6202-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-female-sunflower-mia-mcpherson-6202-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-female-sunflower-mia-mcpherson-6202-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-female-sunflower-mia-mcpherson-6202-600x428.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-female-sunflower-mia-mcpherson-6202-768x548.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-female-sunflower-mia-mcpherson-6202.jpg 850w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><span style=\"color: #888888;\">Female Horned Lark balancing on a sunflower seed head &#8211; Nikon D300, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 640, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not a set up<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I was photographing this female <a href=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/guide\/Horned_Lark\/lifehistory\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Horned Lark<\/span><\/a> on a boulder when she flew and landed on a wild Sunflower seed head\u00a0and fluttered her wings for a while as she tried to get her balance. I love to get them on something besides a rock or the ground.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-11890 size-full\" title=\"Immature male Long-tailed Duck\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/long-tailed-duck-mia-mcpherson-6480.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/long-tailed-duck-mia-mcpherson-6480.jpg\" alt=\"Immature male Long-tailed Duck\" width=\"800\" height=\"503\" data-id=\"11890\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27800%27%20height%3D%27503%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20800%20503%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27800%27%20height%3D%27503%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/long-tailed-duck-mia-mcpherson-6480-150x94.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/long-tailed-duck-mia-mcpherson-6480-300x188.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/long-tailed-duck-mia-mcpherson-6480-400x251.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/long-tailed-duck-mia-mcpherson-6480.jpg 800w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><span style=\"color: #888888;\">Immature male Long-tailed Duck &#8211; Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/3200, ISO 640, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Before I left the park I spotted and pointed out an immature male Long-tailed Duck; a sea duck, near the shoreline along the causeway. They are uncommon visitors here so that was a big thrill.<\/p>\n<p>Life<em> is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It snowed last night and the ground here was covered in white but the clouds were disappearing so off I went to photograph whatever I might find on Antelope Island State Park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":166472,"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":[511,27,1022,436,26],"tags":[4021,12938,11978,1129,126,4181,4070,2659,1327,5993,6433,2136,4326,5053,5052,373],"class_list":["post-4576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-horned-larks","category-utah","tag-bird-photography","tag-clangula-hyemalis","tag-desert-island","tag-duck","tag-ducks-2","tag-eremophila-alpestris","tag-female","tag-fluttering","tag-horned-lark","tag-hypersaline-lake","tag-lark","tag-larks-2","tag-long-tailed-duck","tag-sea-duck","tag-sunflower","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-female-sunflower-mia-mcpherson-6202.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-1bO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4458,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/02\/21\/horned-lark-eating-sunflower-seeds\/","url_meta":{"origin":4576,"position":0},"title":"Horned Lark Eating Sunflower Seeds","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 21, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday I was delighted to be able to photograph this male Horned Lark perched high on dried sunflower seed heads as it ate.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Antelope Island State Park&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Horned Lark eating sunflower seeds, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-male-eating-mia-mcpherson-4600.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-male-eating-mia-mcpherson-4600.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-male-eating-mia-mcpherson-4600.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-male-eating-mia-mcpherson-4600.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":78945,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/02\/05\/male-female-and-immature-horned-lark-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":4576,"position":1},"title":"Male, Female, and Immature Horned Lark Photos","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 5, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"After photographing this male Horned Lark on Antelope Island three days ago I decided to share a photo of him plus female and immature larks in a single post.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Antelope Island State Park&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult male Horned Lark on a gravel pile, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-adult-male-gravel-pile-mia-mcpherson-0979.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-adult-male-gravel-pile-mia-mcpherson-0979.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-adult-male-gravel-pile-mia-mcpherson-0979.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-adult-male-gravel-pile-mia-mcpherson-0979.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3993,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/01\/13\/friday-photos-horned-lark-and-western-meadowlark\/","url_meta":{"origin":4576,"position":2},"title":"Friday Photos ~ Horned Lark and Western Meadowlark","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 13, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Horned Larks and Western Meadowlarks are birds that I enjoy photographing all year long in Utah and yesterday they gave me some wonderful opportunities.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Antelope Island State Park&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta), Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/western-meadowlark-mia-mcpherson-6550.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/western-meadowlark-mia-mcpherson-6550.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/western-meadowlark-mia-mcpherson-6550.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/western-meadowlark-mia-mcpherson-6550.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":35643,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/02\/17\/a-female-horned-lark-on-a-february-morning\/","url_meta":{"origin":4576,"position":3},"title":"Female Horned Lark on a February morning","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday I took a few images of a Horned Lark male singing on Antelope Island State Park and it reminded me that I hadn't posted this image of a female Horned Lark that I photographed last year.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Antelope Island State Park&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Female Horned Lark on a February morning on Antelope Island State Park, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/horned-lark-female-mia-mcpherson-1021.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/horned-lark-female-mia-mcpherson-1021.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/horned-lark-female-mia-mcpherson-1021.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/horned-lark-female-mia-mcpherson-1021.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4621,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/03\/13\/feathers-fur\/","url_meta":{"origin":4576,"position":4},"title":"Feathers &#038; Fur","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 13, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I thought I would post a few images taken this past week from Antelope Island State Park and the west desert in Tooele County. Feathers & Fur.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;American Bison&quot;","block_context":{"text":"American Bison","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/bison\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Horned Lark male on a breezy day in the West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-male-mia-mcpherson-7720.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-male-mia-mcpherson-7720.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-male-mia-mcpherson-7720.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-male-mia-mcpherson-7720.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7880,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/03\/17\/horned-lark-in-early-spring\/","url_meta":{"origin":4576,"position":5},"title":"Horned Lark In Early Spring","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I photographed this male Horned Lark just two days ago and I'm tickled that I can see new growth of grasses in the frame.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Antelope Island State Park&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Horned Lark fluffing in early morning light, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-male-mia-mcpherson-1025.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-male-mia-mcpherson-1025.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-male-mia-mcpherson-1025.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/horned-lark-male-mia-mcpherson-1025.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\/4576","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=4576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}