Today I wanted to share an assortment of spring birds all photographed at Bear River MBR yesterday on a bright and beautiful morning.
I had fun testing my skills by photographing several immature Forster's Terns that were hunting for and catching prey at Farmington Bay WMA two days ago.
May is a time of renewal at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and as the marsh begins to green up the migrant birds return and along with the year round residents their songs and calls can be heard over the wetlands.
There were birds that I photographed including this Yellow-rumped Warbler who perched out in the open with the fall colors of curly docks in the background.
I have had fun photographing Forster's Terns the last few times I have gone to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, they are graceful, beautiful terns and they challenge my skills.
Right now these terns at the refuge are busy feeding their young although some of the juvenile Forster's Terns have already learned how to capture prey on their own.
A little more than a week ago I spotted this Forster's Tern resting on a log in the water at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge from the auto tour loop and I felt I had to hop out and take a few images from across the hood of my Jeep
The differences in breeding and nonbreeding plumage of Forster's Terns is enough that some bird watching and bird photography novices might even think that they are two different species of terns.
This Forster's Tern was hovering while hunting over a unit of water on the auto tour route of Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in northern Utah in clear morning light.
I've always loved this image of a Forster's Tern in flight because the pose is wonderful and the tern looks elegant against the gray of a distant storm cloud.
When I photographed this Forster's Tern hovering over prey there were several others in the area doing the same thing which makes it difficult to decide on which bird to photograph.
This Forster's Tern wasn't trying to take over this Canada Goose nest when I photographed it but it might look that way in this image.
Last week I photographed this adult Forster's Tern in flight as it foraged for food above Glover Pond near Farmington Bay WMA.
The nonbreeding Forster's Tern in these two images is the same bird and the images were taken ten frames and a few seconds apart as the tern stood on the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico in Florida.
These are but a few of the birds I photographed this week in various Utah locations and all of them made great subjects!
This Forster's Tern image was taken several years ago on Fort De Soto County Park's north beach while it was resting on the sand as another tern was flying towards us both.
One of my favorite locations to photograph birds in northern Utah is Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. I've selected some of the birds there that delight and entertain me while I observe and photograph them.
When I moved from Florida to Utah I felt it was fortunate that some of the nonbreeding birds I used to see in Florida during the winter I now get to see in breeding plumage on their nesting grounds.