Tree Swallows Have Migrated Into Northern Utah
Over the weekend, I read on Facebook that Tree Swallows have migrated back into Northern Utah for their breeding season. I am so excited about that news!
Over the weekend, I read on Facebook that Tree Swallows have migrated back into Northern Utah for their breeding season. I am so excited about that news!
I was delighted to photograph this Weidemeyer's Admiral butterfly two days ago while I was with April Olson high in the stunning forests of the Uinta Mountains.
This morning I am sharing some photos of the mammals I loved finding, seeing, photographing and having in my viewfinder in 2022.
Last week I showed my friend Steve Mirror Lake Highway in the Uinta Mountains and I was able to put him on a lifer Yellow-bellied Marmot.
While photographing Yellow-bellied Marmots in the high Uinta Mountains two days ago a Green-tailed Towhee popped into my view on top of a mound of sage.
While up high in the Uinta Mountains yesterday morning I photographed this female Tree Swallow checking out a nesting cavity in a Quaking Aspen.
I spent yesterday morning traveling Mirror Lake Highway in the Uinta Mountains and came home with a few photos of Uinta Chipmunks.
This morning I wanted to share a few Red-naped Sapsucker photos I have taken while in gorgeous alpine forests of Idaho and Utah.
A little birdie told me that Tree Swallows returned to the marshes at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge about the middle of this month.
Tree Swallows and other birds should be nesting in the Uinta Mountains by now and I am itching to hop into my Jeep to drive up there to find them.
These nesting House Wren photos were taken two years ago at the end of May high up in the Uinta Mountains where stands of aspens are used as nesting trees.
I was in the high Uinta Mountains near Washington Lake when I spotted this young Dark-eyed Junco and I was able to take a few images of it before it flew away.
The other bird I photographed that day in the high Uintas was a gorgeous male Yellow Warbler foraging in an aspen tree very close to where I sat inside a "mobile" blind at the edge of a dirt road.
There are times I enjoy finding hidden faces in clouds, rocks, trees or other natural features and I saw one in this House Wren photo.
While photographing some Pine Siskins that were foraging and gathering nesting materials I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye and spotted a Chipping Sparrow with nesting materials in its bill.
Two days ago I spent time photographing nesting House Wrens in the high Uintas near Mirror Lake Highway, of interest to me is that two years ago I photographed Red-naped Sapsuckers using this same nesting cavity.
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.
I came across this image and realized that the Red-naped Sapsucker had its tongue stuck out and I hadn't noticed that before.
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.
I might need to go wandering up the canyons and Sky Line Drive soon just to see what birds and creatures I can find.
Yellow Warblers are so bright it is not hard to see them as they flit around gleaning insects from the trees in the Uinta National Forest.
So, a quick post this morning of a Clark's Nutcracker that I photographed in July of 2008 on my first trip to Utah to photograph birds prior to moving here in 2009.
Near the camp site one afternoon I could hear tiny peeping sounds in the pines and I went to investigate, the sweet calls were coming from these juvenile Flycatchers.