Birds that I find in the field, photograph and share the stories behind the images.
Mergansers are considered "diving ducks" and one of the things the three species of mergansers found in North America all have in common are their serrated bills.
Yesterday a friend of mine sent me a link to an Eagle nest cam in Decorah, Iowa that I have been having fun watching so I thought I'd share it.
What made me sick was that there were three of those people tromping around the owl's burrow. I mean RIGHT up on it. They had no need to be that close but they were.
Last week I wrote that I was looking forward to the birds that arrive here in the spring and yesterday I was able to photograph some of the Loggerhead Shrikes that I mentioned.
I felt that I had a real treat being able to photograph this Black-billed Magpie building a nest after a snow.
I was tickled to get this Chukar calling in the snow near the parking area of Frary Peak trailhead with the snow-covered mountain in the background.
Any bird that eats those nasty sand spurs is a hero in my book and Nanday Parakeets are one of them.
American Robin juvenile photographed in my backyard in Utah as it perched above the grass. Robins are the largest and most abundant North American thrushes.
These are just a small selection of the cast and characters of the upcoming Spring Season
I'm looking forward to seeing red-tailed hawks in the high country of Utah and Montana this summer and hopefully getting some more images of both the juveniles and adult.
After my experience with screwing my white balance up that day I had to make a note to myself to remember to check my white balance setting on the camera.
When I first visited Antelope Island State Park I fell in love with its wild beauty, the windswept grasslands, pungent sagebrush, awesome views of the Great Salt Lake and the wildlife that abounds there.
Brown Pelicans feed by diving head first into the water to trap fish in the pouches of their bills.
Fish Crows are fairly commonplace along the coast of Pinellas County and they are often ignored by photographers because they are a "plain" common bird.
I've found Bald Eagles difficult to approach most of the time which is why a long lens is often needed. But not this one year old bald eagle.
A simple guide to aging Bald Eagles by their plumage development, legs and their bills with images showing the age progression.
Yesterday was awesome for Horned Larks (Eremophila alpestris) in Tooele County, Utah.
This morning when we had almost reached Antelope Island I spotted a huge flock of Northern Shovelers blasting off from the water
Be prepared to become addicted to birds. You will have withdrawals if you don't shoot often enough, your shutter button finger will develop a nervous twitch
Recently the USDA accepted responsibility for a smaller die off in South Dakota which brought to light a little known program called "Bye bye Blackbird" which uses DRC-1339, a poison that is also called an avicide.
I've enjoyed photography for a long time but for quite awhile I didn't understand the value or importance of honest self critique.
There were quite a few Laughing Gulls on and near the shoreline, a few Ring-billed Gulls and two Reddish Egrets hunting on the beach that day.
Gray days sometimes force me to slow down, to take a deep breath and they allow me the luxury of liesurely looking through my older image files
This is a second year Bald Eagle, and while the adult birds are probably the most photographed, I enjoy photographing all ages & phases of plumage of bald eagles.
Taking the time to review my "bad images" strengthens me as a photographer.
Today was a good day, I finally took some images of a Northern Shrike (Lanius excubitor) that weren't taken from too far away.
Male Ring-necked Pheasants are very colorful and sport red face wattles, iridescent ear tufts, the white neck ring and bronze colored chest and back with barring. I remember my grandfather using the pheasant feathers for the flies that he tied.
I believe these two eagle pictures illustrate what changes the depth of field settings can have on the appearance of an image.
This Northern Harrier took about a minute to expel the pellet and I filled my buffer several times trying to catch all the action. The harrier appeared to be concentrating so hard on regurgitating the pellet that it nearly fell off of the fence.
There are times when I think an image might be worth a little extra work in post processing and this young male Northern Harrier image seemed worth the effort to repair a clipped wingtip.