Juvenile Mountain Bluebird with adult male watching over it – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
Yesterday morning I drove up to the Wasatch Mountains and spent the morning driving very slowly through a canyon looking for birds and wildflowers to photograph. I also had a deep-seated need to shut out the vulgar, un-American things going on in our country. I needed to relax.
On the last four or five trips up to the canyon I have been seeing juvenile Mountain Bluebirds but they were either on the wrong side of the road in bad light or they were extremely skittish and took off before I could even raise my lens. Yesterday morning I spent time focusing on finding and photographing the bluebird family.
Luck was on my side when I found the family of Mountain Bluebirds in good light plus they were close enough to take quality photos of them, first the male then the female and the juveniles.
Mountain Bluebirds in a Wasatch Mountain Canyon – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
The light was variable because of clouds floating overhead and there was a bit of a breeze so there were some photos that didn’t come out the way I would have liked but this series of images taken while the birds were on a Utah Serviceberry bush pleased me. In these first two photos I like having the out of focus male Mountain Bluebird in the background as it kept an eye on this juvenile and the three others that were nearby. I couldn’t get enough depth of field to have both birds in focus so I went with having the juvenile sharply in focus.
Juvenile Mountain Bluebird perched on a Utah Serviceberry bush – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
When the adult Mountain Bluebird took off the juvenile stayed on the serviceberry for a few seconds longer so I took a series of images of it perched alone on the bush. Right after I took this photo another juvenile bluebird flew in and chased this bird off.
I’m glad I had time with this family of Mountain Bluebirds yesterday and that being up in the canyons helped my frame of mind at least temporarily.
Life is good.
Mia
Click here to see more of my Mountain Bluebird photos plus facts and information about this species.
Nature so often gives us much needed heart balm.
Beautiful photos! Thank you for sharing. I was lucky to have eastern bluebirds breed in my yard and had so much fun watching them. Both parents were very hard workers feeding all those kids.
Beautiful photos, Mia. The bird of happiness
Wow, that eye ring!