{"id":48989,"date":"2017-10-16T05:07:41","date_gmt":"2017-10-16T11:07:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=48989"},"modified":"2024-11-02T10:10:55","modified_gmt":"2024-11-02T15:10:55","slug":"dark-eyed-junco-mullein-blooming-rabbitbrush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/10\/16\/dark-eyed-junco-mullein-blooming-rabbitbrush\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark-eyed Junco, Mullein & Blooming Rabbitbrush"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dark-eyedDark-eyed Junco (Oregon) perched on Mullein – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

When I lived in Virginia I could almost always tell when we were going to get our first snow of the season by the arrival of flocks of Dark-eyed Juncos. The slate-colored subspecies of Dark-eyed Juncos would usually show up in flocks in my yard and garden a few days before the snow would fly, I always loved seeing and hearing them, we called them “snow birds”. I now wish I would have had cameras and gear that would have allowed me to photograph the ones that came into my yard back then, especially when there was a blanket of snow on the ground.<\/p>\n

Here in northern Utah I can see the Slate-colored, Oregon, Pink-sided and Gray-headed subspecies (some people call them groups) of Dark-eyed Juncos. Once at Fish Lake I saw all four in close proximity to each other but I could not get a single decent picture of them.<\/p>\n

Yesterday while looking for birds to photograph a single Dark-eyed Junco popped up into my view and perched on a dried mullein stalk in front of blooming rabbitbrush. Even though the junco was a bit further away than I would have liked I couldn’t resist photographing the handsome bird in such a pretty setting. So he is a tad small in the frame but I love the images anyway.<\/p>\n

\"Dark-eyedDark-eyed Junco perched on Mullein in front of blooming Rabbitbrush – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The Dark-eyed Junco at least gave me a few different poses before he flew off. He was such a pretty bird!<\/p>\n

In Utah we have juncos all year long but during the summer I have to head up into the mountains to see them, during the fall the juncos start to move down into the benches and the valleys. I’ve been seeing the juncos a lot more frequently since the weather started to turn colder.<\/p>\n

I saw a low of 20\u00b0F yesterday. Summer has gone and winter is now pushing its way in but I hope we have fall for a bit longer because I am enjoying the brisk mornings and warm afternoons.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

Yesterday while looking for birds to photograph a single Dark-eyed Junco popped up into my view and perched on a dried mullein stalk in front of blooming rabbitbrush.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":136142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_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":[27,1148,2749,26],"tags":[4004,970,2750,4098,4620,6036,2751,6037,6177,6087,4104,4289,11852,6178,855,4195,5422],"class_list":["post-48989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-dark-eyed-juncos","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-autumn","tag-dark-eyed-junco","tag-desert","tag-fall","tag-junco","tag-junco-hyemalis","tag-juncos","tag-mullein","tag-oregon","tag-perched","tag-rabbitbrush","tag-ranchlands","tag-snow-birds","tag-sparrow","tag-sparrows","tag-subspecies"],"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