{"id":4748,"date":"2012-04-07T08:22:32","date_gmt":"2012-04-07T14:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=4748"},"modified":"2025-11-06T04:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T10:56:10","slug":"a-fearless-sage-thrasher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/04\/07\/a-fearless-sage-thrasher\/","title":{"rendered":"One Fearless Sage Thrasher"},"content":{"rendered":"

This past week I have seen a few Sage Thrashers (Oreoscoptes montanus<\/em>) on Antelope Island State Park<\/span><\/a> and although none of them were close enough to photograph I know it won’t be long before I will be able to create new images of them. Seeing them reminded me of an encounter with a Sage Thrasher a few years ago that appeared to be fearless.<\/p>\n

\"FearlessFearless Sage Thrasher – Nikon D200, f6.3, 1\/1000, ISO 250, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I’ve found Sage Thrashers to be a touch on the skittish side but not this individual bird. I came across this thrasher while using a vehicle as a mobile blind.<\/p>\n

The bird wasn’t too far from the road when I created the photograph above and although I would have preferred less obstructions the foreground I still liked this image because of the subtle colors in the bird’s plumage and the setting.<\/p>\n

This particular bird didn’t fly off any time soon as many of the Sage Thrashers I have photographed do. Instead the bird would dash out onto the road and then disappear under the pickup.<\/p>\n

It would then scurry back to the side of the road and then proceed to run under the pickup again. As near as I can tell the thrasher may have been finding prey on the road under the vehicle and its hunger may have overcome its fear of humans.<\/p>\n

I can’t be sure but I know I found the behavior fascinating. I wish I could have gotten images of the bird as it dashed under the pickup but it was simply too close to focus on!<\/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":"

This past week I have seen a few Sage Thrashers on Antelope Island State Park and although none of them were close enough to photograph I know it won’t be long before I will be able to create new images of them. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":162766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[511,27,103,26],"tags":[4004,11978,9223,4124,519,4164,2326,4003,9225,9224,2315,4613,735],"class_list":["post-4748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-avian","category-sage-thrashers","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-desert-island","tag-fearless","tag-mobile-blind","tag-nature","tag-oreoscoptes-montanus","tag-road","tag-sage-thrasher","tag-scurry","tag-skittish","tag-summer-3","tag-thrasher","tag-thrashers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t