Wow, today is the last day of the year 2016. This is my photographic year in review from Utah, Idaho and Montana!
As I focused on the Great Blue Heron I could tell it was an immature bird braving its first winter alone in the marshes of Farmington Bay.
I photographed this Green Heron at Sawgrass Lake Park in Pinellas County, Florida with my first DSLR, a Nikon D70, when I was just getting into bird photography.
The Great Blue Herons here in Utah are dealing with ice, snow and bitter cold temperatures now but the Great Blue Herons in Florida they have started courting and building their nests.
I must admit I get a little bonkers though when I see images of birds where the name posted for the species in the photo is incorrect, for instance, it is Tricolored Heron not Tri-colored Heron.
I photographed this juvenile Roseate Spoonbill in May of 2008 from inside a lagoon at Fort De Soto's north while the immature spoonbill and a few adults preened and rested on the shoreline.
Today I am celebrating having published 2000 posts on birds, wildlife and nature at On The Wing Photography and sharing the stories behind the images along with the journeys I take to find my subjects.
To the untrained eye American Bitterns and Black-crowned Night Herons can be confused so I thought I'd visually compare the two species with other keys to aid in their identification.
Two days ago when I found this Great Blue Heron resting in the goose nest I knew I had to photograph it because of the autumn colors in the background.
This is National Wildlife Refuge Week and in celebration I wanted to do a pictorial essay that includes some of my images of the Birds of Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.
The Great Egret struggled to swallow the large fish and even though it readjusted the fish in its bill several times it never swallowed the fish before it dropped it into the lagoon and flew off.
There were Snowy Egrets, juvenile Black-crowned Night Herons, Great Blue Herons and this White-faced-Ibis foraging at Farmington Bay to photograph.
Almost a year ago I felt very fortunate to be able to take a series of Snowy Egret portraits at Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area in Northern Utah.
Right after I photographed this Snowy Egret landing it started to chase after another egret that had a small fish and they both flew off with their backs to me.
When I lived in Florida there were times that I would see Wood Storks at Fort De Soto and once in a while I would get lucky and find them in flight.
I did see and photograph this adult Yellow-crowned Night Heron standing on a grassy sand dune overlooking the Gulf of Mexico in beautiful, soft light.
I photographed this white morph Reddish Egret hunting in the Gulf of Mexico in June of 2008 and truly enjoyed observing its hunting behavior through my lens.
While walking the boardwalk at the small rookery I was able to get close to this Great Egret that was resting under the canopy of a large tree and took this portrait of it.
I had a great deal of fun photographing the pelicans, herons, egrets and geese in flight in the rapidly changing light yesterday morning at Bear River MBR.
The bird I was looking at wasn't a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron at all, it was an adult American Bittern out in the open!
I liked the crouched position of this Snowy Egret as it was about to strike the prey it was hunting and when it struck it did capture and eat the small fish.
I saw plenty of birds yesterday including juvenile Black-crowned Night Herons at Bear River MBR every where I looked.
These four birds, an American Oystercatcher, a Greater Sage-Grouse, a Reddish Egret and a Mountain Plover are all facing the risk of extinction without serious conservation measures to reduce declines in populations and habitat destruction.
This Great Blue Heron was in flight over the north beach of Fort De Soto with dark Australian Pines in the background on a foggy morning.
When I photographed these two Snowy Egrets at Bear River MBR last August they were already through raising their young for the season.
This might be the only image I have in my portfolio that shows a Great Egret with a loose head feather waving above its head at a jaunty angle.
For weeks I have been seeing White-faced Ibis fly overs and yesterday I had my first opportunity to photograph them for the year at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.
Two bald headed birds, but very different in appearance, one is a vulture who cleans up the earth and the other a wading bird with pink and carmine plumage.
I have only seen and photographed these two Great Blue Herons expelling bile in Florida and Utah. I wonder how often this occurs.
These images of a Great Blue Heron at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge were taken last September on the auto tour route at the refuge.