{"id":51081,"date":"2018-02-26T06:26:32","date_gmt":"2018-02-26T13:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=51081"},"modified":"2026-02-25T10:12:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T16:12:02","slug":"wintertime-mountain-cottontail-in-northern-utah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/02\/26\/wintertime-mountain-cottontail-in-northern-utah\/","title":{"rendered":"Wintertime Mountain Cottontail in Northern Utah"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MountainMountain Cottontail in northern Utah – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/5000, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I got skunked yesterday as far as locating and photographing birds except for a few images of a Western Meadowlark, a Chukar, and a far away aerial fight between a Golden Eagle and a Raven that weren’t the best quality.<\/p>\n

There are days like that for bird photographers. Lots of days like that.\u00a0 Days when every thing seems to go wrong.<\/p>\n

The birds are absent or harder than normal to locate or the ones I do find seem more skittish than usual or the birds I see are way to far away. It just happens.<\/p>\n

But it was wonderful to see snow on the mountains and clear down into the valleys. It was nice to feel the nip in the air and actually be able to see for miles and miles because there were no visible signs of an inversion in sight.<\/p>\n

My best photos of the day were of a Mountain Cottontail<\/span><\/a> in the snow and that isn’t saying much because of the annoying grass stem that intersects the rabbit’s ears.<\/p>\n

I really wish that grass stem hadn’t been there\u00a0 but I don’t see these small, desert dwelling rabbits all that often and I am always delighted when I do.<\/p>\n

They usually blend in so well with their habitat that I am sure I have missed spotting quite a few of them but in the snow they do stand out.<\/p>\n

Anyway… I might just be photographing feeder birds or birds at my local pond the next few days as the weather forecast looks rather dismal.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

My best photos of the day were of a Mountain Cottontail in the snow and that isn’t saying much because of the annoying grass stem that intersects the rabbit’s ears.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":170453,"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":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1148,7717,26],"tags":[4142,6372,4865,4098,1632,7718,4046,6371,4864,11852,4050,4429,102,373],"class_list":["post-51081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-mountain-cottontails","category-utah","tag-close-up","tag-cottontail","tag-cottontails","tag-desert","tag-mammals","tag-mountain-cottontail","tag-portrait","tag-rabbit","tag-rabbits","tag-ranchlands","tag-snow","tag-sylvilagus-nuttallii","tag-wildlife","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/desert-cottontail-snow-mia-mcpherson-4085.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-dhT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":35211,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/02\/04\/a-mountain-cottontail-on-antelope-island-state-park\/","url_meta":{"origin":51081,"position":0},"title":"Mountain Cottontail on Antelope Island State Park","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I had to share at least one image of this Mountain Cottontail on Antelope Island State Park that showed its little, fluffy white tail, after all that is where they get part of their name.","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 Cottontail resting on the snow on Antelope Island State Park in Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/desert-cottontail-snow-mia-mcpherson-0303.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/desert-cottontail-snow-mia-mcpherson-0303.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/mountain-cottontail-snow-mia-mcpherson-1749.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/mountain-cottontail-snow-mia-mcpherson-1749.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/mountain-cottontail-snow-mia-mcpherson-1749.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/mountain-cottontail-snow-mia-mcpherson-1749.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":74296,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/10\/03\/desert-cottontail-portraits\/","url_meta":{"origin":51081,"position":3},"title":"Desert Cottontail Portraits","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 3, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month when I spotted a Desert Cottontail in the mountains of the West Desert I knew I wanted to take photos of the rabbit especially since it was so close that I could take portraits of it.","rel":"","context":"In "Desert Cottontails"","block_context":{"text":"Desert Cottontails","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/desert-cottontails\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Desert Cottontail portrait, Stansbury Mountains, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/desert-cottontail-close-up-mia-mcpherson-2186.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/desert-cottontail-close-up-mia-mcpherson-2186.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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