Antelope Island - first trip this year

The cold weather kept us away from Antelope this winter, then I just got busy after the first of the year. But today was to be the best day before a series of fronts come through so off Murph and I went to Antelope.
As I used the restroom at the causeway entrance I listened to and watched as a pair of Sandhill Cranes landed a long ways away in the bulrushes. Then a little bird posed for me and a male pheasant crossed the road as I was paying my entrance fee - all in all an auspicious start to the adventure.

The day progressed quite well, from Western Meadowlarks serenading us to Chukars and Jackrabbits checking us out. Buffalo posed with their birds, Burrowing Owls are back for spring, antelope browsed for food, coyotes made their normal elusive appearance and a pair of mule deer bucks with nice antlers sparred briefly as I watched.  This could be Groundhog day for me - wow, what a plethora of treats!

Here's our initial greeter at the beginning of the causeway.

Murphy is the best dog in the world, but he uses his nose and the rabbits run far ahead of him. Here's a 'jack' who ran a bit and then stopped to look.

The Chukars were out - a very beautiful bird.

The Burrowing Owl is back at the nest - honestly all I could see was a bump on the ground!

The language of love - sung by the Western Meadowlark. To listen to it's song you can go to http://birds.audubon.org/birds/western-meadowlark .

A surreal photo of a surreal landscape.

Wily coyote snuck through the grass - I thought I would cut him off at the pass and get some closeups but no such luck!

The two bucks had a couple of younger bucks with them;  the one on the right wanted to spar a little so they played with their horns together a bit - I have a neat sequence of that.

And you cannot show a buffalo without the ever-present bird on its back!