I found and photographed this female Merlin at my local pond last month, and she seemed to be the perfect bird for me to share on International Women's Day.
I was at one of my local ponds yesterday morning when a gorgeous adult female Merlin flew in and landed on a tree not far from where I stood behind my tripod.
Little did I know that on my last trip up into the Wasatch Mountains, that I would witness a battle between a Belted Kingfisher and my first-of-season Merlin.
One of the birds I photographed yesterday at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge was an adult male Prairie Merlin that I spotted on a fence post close to the road.
Last week I spotted a Merlin perched on a large wooden post way out in the marsh at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in northern Utah.
I noticed in my Facebook memories that four years ago this morning was when I found my first of season Merlin out on the mudflats at Farmington Bay WMA.
This is my 2020 photographic year in review. I'm selecting some of my favorite photos from 2020 and a few that just make me happy to see them.
Any time I can see and photograph two falcon species in a single day is a great day and yesterday I photographed a Prairie Merlin and several American Kestrels.
In my experience Merlins are already hard to find in the state of Utah but because of our climate crisis they could become even more difficult to locate or they might even disappear from the state altogether.
There isn't a single day in the field where I take my eyesight and my keen spotting abilities for granted and yesterday those attributes netted me not one but two Merlins while I was at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.
I spotted my first of the season Merlin yesterday morning out on the flats at Farmington Bay yesterday morning and it truly delighted me.
Last September I was able to observe and photograph a Merlin in southwestern Montana over a period of several days.
I don't often have the opportunity to photograph Merlins so I was plenty excited to find one yesterday on the South Valley Road in the Centennial Valley that stuck around for a bit!
I saw a fleeting glimpse of a bird a few days ago that I suspect was a Merlin that migrated to winter here in Utah and it inspired me to post a few Merlin images today.
Earlier this month I had the opportunity to photograph a Merlin two mornings in a row in the Centennial Valley of Montana, once in low light and once as a fog rolled in.
Just a short Merlin post today from my Montana trip, a teaser for the images I will soon be posting.
Merlins are winter visitors in the Salt Lake Valley so I have just a few more weeks to attempt photographing them. Merlins are used to be called "pigeon hawks" because their shape and flight patterns are similar to pigeons.