Ophir Canyon – Mia McPherson's On The Wing Photography

Another Scrub-Jay Name Change in 2024

By Mia McPherson|December 5th, 2023|Categories: Birds, Ophir Canyon, Stansbury Mountains, Tooele County, Utah, West Desert, Woodhouse's Scrub-Jays|Tags: adult, American Ornithological Society, AOS, Aphelocoma woodhouseii, autumn, bill, corvids, fall, food, jay, jays, juniper, junipers, Juniperus osteosperma, name change, perched, scrub-jay, scrub-jays, seeds, shrub, sky island mountains, tree, Utah Juniper, winter, Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay|

Lately, I've been wondering what the new name for the Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay species, that I photograph here in Utah, will be when it is changed in 2024.

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Mountain Chickadee in Ophir Canyon

By Mia McPherson|December 8th, 2017|Categories: Birds, Mountain Chickadees, Ophir Canyon, Tooele County, Utah, West Desert|Tags: adult, blue sky, canyon, chickadee, chickadees, juniper, Mountain Chickadee, perched, Poecile gambeli, winter|

Last week while photographing birds in Ophir Canyon I was able to take a short series of photos of a Mountain Chickadee perched in a juniper right after I photographed some bushtits.

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Nemesis Birds – Bushtit Photos

By Mia McPherson|December 3rd, 2017|Categories: Birds, Bushtits, Daggett County, Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, Ophir Canyon, Tooele County, Utah, West Desert|Tags: Bushtit, females, Flaming Gorge Dam, foraging, light eyes, nemesis, Psaltriparus minimus, rabbitbrush, twittering|

Bushtits are a nemesis bird for me, I have only had a few opportunities to photograph these tiny, frenetic birds and I have yet to get high quality images of them.

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Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay – A Familiar Bird with a New Name

By Mia McPherson|July 8th, 2016|Categories: Birds, Cascade Springs, Ophir Canyon, Tooele County, Uinta National Forest, Utah, Wasatch County, Woodhouse's Scrub-Jays|Tags: adult, Aphelocoma woodhouseii, behavior, California Scrub-Jay, differences, habitat, jay, jays, name change, oak, perched, pinyon pine, Samuel Washington Woodhouse, scrub-jay, scrub-jays, snow, split, Western Scrub-Jay, Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay|

The long-awaited Scrub-Jay split has officially happened! Western Scrub-Jay can be crossed out in a our fields guides and the two new names California Scrub-Jay and Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay can be penciled in.

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Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay in Ophir Canyon

By Mia McPherson|January 18th, 2016|Categories: Birds, Ophir Canyon, Tooele County, Utah, Woodhouse's Scrub-Jays|Tags: adult, Aphelocoma woodhouseii, corvids, desert, jay, jays, junipers, pinyon pine, scrub-jay, scrub-jays, sky island mountains, snow, winter, Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay|

A couple Woodhouse's Scrub-Jays in Ophir Canyon Road in Tooele County were the most cooperative of the jays that I found.

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