Birds that I find in the field, photograph and share the stories behind the images.
I was pleased and relieved to see the surviving Red-tailed Hawk juvenile perched on a corral close to the edge of the road and looking well fed and healthy.
I will probably never see and photograph so many leucistic Eared Grebes again in my life time as I did yesterday on the Great Salt Lake.
I didn't have the good fortune to photograph another Cassin's Finch on my trip so I am glad I took the time to take photos of this one looking around his home in the Centennial Valley of Montana.
I know how blessed I am to be able to see and photograph the spellbinding spectacle of thousands and thousands of Wilson's Phalaropes lift off and take flight en masse
While I looked around four days ago I saw this Bank Swallow resting on a fence that hangs over the Red Rock River and could not resist photographing it with the blue water below and behind it.
There were several fledglings on the rails but I liked how these two young American Crows were relatively close together and both looking the same direction, up the rails and to the north
I simply don't know what caused this kind of feather damage and I hope that someone can give me a better idea of what was going on with this Swainson's Hawk.
Although photographing the Red-naped Sapsuckers at the nesting cavity has been frustrating at times it has also been very rewarding to observe all the action of the sapsucker family.
Today's post is just a simple bird. A sky blue Mountain Bluebird perched on a rustic pine fence railing taken on a bright beautiful morning in the Centennial Valley of Montana.
Jackpot and frustrations... I'll explain the jackpot first and get to the frustrations later about the Targhee National Forest Red-naped Sapsucker feeding its young.
Red-tailed Hawks were my most photographed species yesterday morning in the Centennial Valley of southwestern Montana and I had fun with them.
The Short-eared Owl was perched on the post and slowly turned its head to look around as if it was surveying the beauty of the valley it had made its home in.
A few more changes in the Fifty-Eighth Supplement to the AOS Check-list have to do with dabbling ducks and "white geese".
This male Red-naped Sapsucker was photographed last year in the high Uintas, a mountain range that is east of Salt Lake City and the Wasatch Mountains I can see from where I live.
I needed time out with the birds yesterday and this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk helped me to relax, breathe and remember that things have a way of working out.
I photographed this preening Ring-billed Gull in a snow storm in January of this year at a pond near where I live and it was pretty chilly that day.
Just because Willets weren't split this year doesn't mean they won't be split in the future, who knows what changes will be made a year from now.
I spotted two of the other Red-tailed Hawk chicks that I have been following since early spring and was delighted that they have now fledged and have both learned to fly.
The ranges for these two species of kingbirds overlap here in northern Utah but I see more of the Western Kingbirds than I do the Eastern Kingbirds.
The young Mountain Bluebird turned and snatched the cricket from the male quickly before any of its siblings could reach the branches.
As I watched the Gray Flycatcher it flew towards me, snatched a damselfly from mid air then landed on a dead branch not too far away and proceeded to eat it while I photographed the bird.
Both times I photographed this male Burrowing Owl yesterday morning he looked very sleepy, he may be worn out from helping to raise a passel of chicks.
A few days ago I saw an adult Red-tailed Hawk fly towards its nest with prey for its chicks, the prey was a duckling.
Yesterday I saw all three of the young Red-tailed Hawk chicks together perched on a fallen tree not far from where their natal nest had been before the wind knocked it down.
I knew when I photographed this Snowy Egret in a shallow lagoon at Fort De Soto County Park that the dark reflections of the mangroves and mangrove roots on the water would produce a high contrast image.
Black Skimmers forage by skimming their bills in the waves just off shore and snap up fish when their sensitive bills locate them.
I know that what this person did was not right and the 8 moderators of that group should have said something but in 15 days they haven't said a word about them being too close to the owl chick.
One year ago today I became part of an amazing group of people who rescued, rehabbed and trained Galileo the Short-eared Owl after finding him hung up on a barbed wire fence
Maybe next year I'll have better opportunities with these Red-naped Sapsuckers and maybe they will chose to place their new nesting cavity in a location that is easier to photograph.
While this final image shows a beautiful Short-eared Owl, nice sharpness and details when I compare it to the first photo it just isn't as visually appealing to me as the first photo which was taken in softer light.