I wish I had been in a better position with a better angle of light but due to vegetation growing along the road there were just a few clear areas between the Rabbitbrush to get an unobstructed view of the Prairie Falcon but I do like how the photo shows off the full crop.
These are a just few images that I have edited taken since August of Red-tailed Hawk juveniles on Antelope Island State Park.
One of the nice things about cruddy weather is that I get the chance to edit some of the images that are languishing in my files that I have taken but not gotten around to processing. Here are a few of a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk photographed in August on Antelope Island State Park.
This Western Meadowlark was a cooperative subject yesterday morning and allowed a close enough approach to get some frame filling images.
I'm pleased with this bison image because it contains so many icons of the western U.S., the bison grazing on prairie grasses, the Great Salt Lake and a mountain range in the background.
Last week I saw quite a few Common Mergansers at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge but I wasn't able to get close enough to them to get any quality images but they reminded me of images I had been able to take of Common Mergansers several years ago at Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area.
Not long after arriving at Antelope Island yesterday I heard the sound of Coyotes singing, it is a sound that always brings a smile to my lips and delights me.
There are Burrowing Owls on Antelope Island; I've photographed them hundreds of times, but yesterday I spotted one in a location I had never seen one before.
I was tickled to get these images and the others I created of these two Snow Geese yesterday, especially since they were close.
This image of a Northern Harrier and a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk in an aerial dogfight over Antelope Island State Park was taken the day before the recent snow storm started that we had here in the Salt Lake Valley over the weekend.
While looking for birds to photograph I spotted a pair of Coyotes hunting and roaming through the snow-covered landscape together.
Earlier this morning I spotted a Prairie Falcon perched on a rock while on the Antelope Island Causeway, before we could get stopped and into position to photograph the falcon it took off over the water and attacked a Northern Shoveler.
Just a few images from this past week.
The horns of Pronghorns are composed of a permanent slender, laterally flattened blade of bone that is covered by a keratinous sheath.
A simple image from a series of images I took last year of a Chukar calling on a rocky outcropping with a snowy mountain in the background.
For anyone interested in Coyote hunting reading this post you won't find any help as to where, when or how to do that on this blog, when I write about Coyote hunting is it about a Coyote HUNTING for its food. Got it?
Just a simple image today of a juvenile White-crowned Sparrow with a pumpkin patch in the background as the month of October comes to an end.
There is a rather large Pumpkin Patch near the road going to the Nature Center at Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area where I like to photograph birds. They have a straw maze and all kinds of activities for children too.
As I write this the first snow of winter is falling outside my living room window. For the past week I have seen the snow on the mountain tops and I had been looking forward to seeing the snow covering the Salt Lake Valley.
It was an unusual experience to see these Pied-billed Grebes standing upright and walking on the edge of this pond, some might even consider it rare.
Although White-crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys) are year round residents in Utah I see far more of them in the fall, winter and early spring and because it is cold they also are "stickier" and allow closer approaches.
One year ago today it was slow on Antelope Island, not many birds were close enough to photograph but on the way home I spotted this female Brewer's Blackbird on some rocks near one of the bridges on the causeway to the island.
I know that falconry birds and rehabbed raptors can be used as excellent tools in educating the public, I've been impressed with them myself. But there is a risk for falconry birds that escape and that still have jesses or anklets attached and that fact worries me.
Last winter was awesome for seeing Rough-legged Hawks and I am hoping they had another great breeding season and that they will show up here in large numbers to over winter.
Two days ago while looking for birds to photograph on Antelope Island State Park this Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus) buck came into view.
I've had the good fortune to photograph both the eastern and western Willets in breeding plumage, the eastern in Florida and the western in Utah and Montana.
Most of the Horned Larks I photograph are perched on rocks or boulders, this one is perched on a dried pile of Bison poop. Some might think this is a crappy perch and they would be right!
I had another great day with juvenile Red-tailed Hawks on Antelope Island State Park last week.
Near the summit of Francis Peak, elevation 9,560 feet, I spotted this Dusky Grouse male on the edge of a gravel road with a steep drop off to the west and I was able to get a few photographs of it before we motioned to a pickup truck coming down from the summit to move forward.
Normally I wouldn't take or present an image where the subject is as small in the frame as this juvenile White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) is but I couldn't resist because I like this image a lot.