Greater Yellowlegs in the mud at Farmington Bay – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/2000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
I’ve been seeing lots of Greater Yellowlegs recently at Farmington Bay WMA here in northern Utah and that might seem unusual because signs of winter have already shown but it really isn’t that unusual at all for this species of shorebirds. Personally I have seen them as late as the end of December and as early as late February foraging in open water even with a thick layer of snow on the ground. The past few winters have been milder than normal and it wouldn’t surprise me if in the future we saw them regularly all winter long, especially with the effects of climate change.
This Greater Yellowlegs was photographed on October 30th at Farmington Bay. That white thing in the mud on the right side is a shotgun wad, shooting is not allowed in the area where this yellowlegs was photographed so it probably floated to that location.
November trio of Greater Yellowlegs – Nikon D500, f10, 1/1600, ISO 640, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
And this trio of yellowlegs were photographed on November 2nd, they were part of a flock of about two dozen that were foraging in some shallow water of the marsh.
We have other shorebirds that hang around here in Utah during the winter including Killdeer and Wilson’s Snipe. This far north you might not think we’d have shorebirds that you could see in a blizzard but we really can.
Life is good.
Mia
Click here to see more of my Greater Yellowlegs photos plus facts and information about this species.
Great shots and info. ! Love the reflections in the second pic. It’s like the Yellowlegs are walking on a mirror. Thanks Mia.
Nice images….especially like the first…we have them here, too. I hope the same as Ellie Baby..about the shotgun wad…
I hope the shotgun was DID float there and wasn’t deposited by a littering rule breaker.