Curious adult Mountain Chickadee, West Desert, Tooele County, UtahCurious adult Mountain Chickadee – Nikon D500, f6.3, 1/1250, ISO 500, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

When winter snow closes off my access to the mountains that I love to visit to find birds I find that it makes me feel wistful because I will miss the birds and the calmness I find up there. The snows from last week piled up in the mountains and now I will have to wait until late spring to make my way up there again.

The Mountain Chickadees, Red-breasted Nuthatches, Downy Woodpeckers, American Robins, Wild Turkeys, Townsend’s Solitaires, Northern Flickers, and other birds who live in the mountains year round will still be there working hard at surviving the harshness of winter along with the howling winds and the bitter cold.

Of course I will be photographing other birds at lower elevations throughout the winter and thoroughly enjoying myself while I am at it but somewhere in my mind I’ll wonder how those birds in the mountains are doing and if they are finding enough food to keep warm on the long winter nights.

Life is good.

Mia