Environment – Mia McPherson's On The Wing Photography

Show Your Love – Don’t Let Balloons Go

By Mia McPherson|February 14th, 2024|Categories: Conservation, Environment, Miscellaneous, Salt Lake County, Utah|Tags: balloon, balloons, bird dangers, danger, dangerous, entanglement, hazard, hazardous, ingest, Jordan River, mylar balloons, shrubs, strings, tangled, urban, wildlife dangers, winter|

Last Sunday I went to some local spots to look for birds. As I was driving, I saw four mylar balloons stuck in some shrubs near the Jordan River. My heart sank.

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Why I See More Than A Tree In These Photos

By Mia McPherson|December 29th, 2023|Categories: Conservation, Davis County, Environment, Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area, Habitat, Trees, Utah|Tags: Ailanthus altissima, Chinese Sumac, clouds, Goose Egg Island, hill, marsh, mountains, sky, tree, Tree-of-heaven, trees, Wasatch Mountains, wetlands, winter|

Both of these photos show the same tree on Goose Egg Island at Farmington Bay WMA. The images were taken in December of 2022 and 2013.

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Immature Female Northern Harrier

By Mia McPherson|December 12th, 2023|Categories: Birds, Davis County, Environment, Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area, Habitat, Northern Harriers, Utah|Tags: autumn, birds of prey, Circus hudsonius, clouds, fall, female, field, first winter, flight, flying, harrier, harriers, hawk, hawks, immature, marsh, Northern Harrier, on the wing, perched, post, raptors, scanning, sky, snow, snowy, wetlands, wooden post, young|

Today I am sharing three photos of an immature female Northern Harrier that I took ten years ago at Farmington Bay WMA.

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Plastic Netting Will Kill This Pied-billed Grebe

By Mia McPherson|December 7th, 2023|Categories: Birds, Environment, Pied-billed Grebes, Salt Lake County, Utah|Tags: adult, autumn, bill, dying, entanglement, fall, grebe, grebes, netting, nonbreeding plumage, park, Pied-billed Grebe, plastic, plastic netting, Podilymbus podiceps, pond, starvation, starve, urban, water|

Plastic netting will kill this Pied-billed Grebe unless myself or someone else can capture the grebe and remove the netting. The grebe will starve to death.

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World Wetlands Day 2021

By Mia McPherson|February 2nd, 2021|Categories: American Barn Owls, American Bitterns, American Coots, Bald Eagles, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Black-crowned Night Herons, Blue-winged Teals, Brewer's Blackbirds, Centennial Valley, Checkered White Butterflies, Cinnamon Teals, Common Mergansers, Conservation, Eight-spotted Skimmers, Environment, Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, Greater Scaups, Green-winged Teals, Halloween Pennants, Hooded Mergansers, Least Sandpipers, Lesser Scaups, Long-tailed Weasels, Marsh Wrens, Montana, Moose, Muskrats, Northern Harriers, Northern Pintails, Northern Shovelers, Pectoral Sandpipers, Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Red-breasted Mergansers, Red-winged Blackbirds, Reddish Egrets, Redheads, Ruddy Ducks, Rusty Blackbirds, Sandhill Cranes, Scarlet Skimmers, Snowy Egrets, Spotted Sandpipers, Tricolored Herons, Trumpeter Swans, Tundra Swans, Utah, Variegated Meadowhawk, White-faced Ibises, Wildflowers, Wilson's Phalaropes, Yellow-crowned Night Herons, Yellow-headed Blackbirds|Tags: birds, critical, insects, plants, protection, water, wetlands, wildlife, World Wetlands Day|

February 2nd is World Wetlands Day to raise global awareness about the critical role of wetlands for people, wildlife and our planet.

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Poof: Utah’s Merlins Could Disappear

By Mia McPherson|August 13th, 2019|Categories: Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Beaverhead County, Birds, Box Elder County, Centennial Valley, Conservation, Environment, Merlins, Montana, Utah|Tags: adult, burn area, climate change, climate crisis, disappear, early morning, Falco columbarius, Falco columbarius richardsonii, falcon, falcons, fence, marsh, Merlin, merlins, perched, post, prairie, prey, wetlands|

In my experience Merlins are already hard to find in the state of Utah but because of our climate crisis they could become even more difficult to locate or they might even disappear from the state altogether.

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Picture This: Utah Could Lose Our Mountain Bluebirds

By Mia McPherson|August 12th, 2019|Categories: Birds, Clark County, Conservation, Environment, Idaho, Mountain Bluebirds, Summit County, Targhee National Forest, Utah, Wasatch Mountains|Tags: adult, aspen, Blue Elderberry, bluebird, bluebirds, canyons, chicks, climate change, climate crisis, female, male, Mountain Bluebird, mountains, nesting cavity, Sambucus cerulea, Sialia currucoides, spring, summer|

Our current climate crisis could mean Utah might lose our Mountain Bluebirds and it is not just us, it is Idaho, California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming that will also be affected if action isn't taken now.

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Imagine Utah Without California Gulls

By Mia McPherson|August 11th, 2019|Categories: Antelope Island State Park, Birds, California Gulls, Conservation, Davis County, Environment, Salt Lake County, Utah|Tags: adult, at risk, brine flies, California Gull, chasing, climate change, climate crisis, flight, flying, Great Salt Lake, gull, gulls, icy, lake, lake shore, Larus californicus, pond, urban|

Ah, Mia, it is just a bird. No, it isn't just a bird. Because California Gulls aren't the only birds at risk of disappearing from the skies, shorelines and waters of Utah.

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Welcoming the New Year

By Mia McPherson|January 1st, 2017|Categories: Antelope Island State Park, Birds, Canada Geese, Conservation, Coyotes, Environment, Utah|Tags: Branta canadensis, Canada Goose, Canis latrans, Coyote, Cygnus columbianus, Theodore Roosevelt, Tundra Swan|

Each of us are the authors of how 2017 will be written in those history books as surely as we are the pathfinders in the journeys of our own lives.

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How strange and wonderful is our home

By Mia McPherson|December 2nd, 2016|Categories: Antelope Island State Park, Conservation, Davis County, Environment, Utah|Tags: dark clouds, Edward Abbey, snow, snow storm, stormy sky|

The earth deserves better than we have given her, future generations deserve better than we are currently leaving them.

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Greater Sage-Grouse in Wayne County, Utah

By Mia McPherson|November 19th, 2015|Categories: Birds, Conservation, Environment, Greater Sage-Grouse, Utah, Wayne County|Tags: adult, Centrocercus urophasianus, courtship behavior, courtship displays, displaying, female, Greater Sage-Grouse, grouse, hen, male, sage-grouse, sparring, upland terrestrial birds|

Since the snow has started to fall in the high country of Utah I have started thinking about Greater Sage-Grouse again.

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It Is Good To Realize…

By Mia McPherson|September 28th, 2015|Categories: Antelope Island State Park, Conservation, Davis County, Environment, Utah|Tags: clouds, Great Salt Lake, Jimmy Carter, Promontory Point|

It wasn't very birdy yesterday on Antelope Island State Park but the views were spectacular and I simply felt good to be alive surrounded by the beauty.

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The First Day of Autumn and the Heat is On in Utah

By Mia McPherson|September 23rd, 2015|Categories: Birds, Davis County, Environment, Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area, Ring-necked Pheasants, Utah|Tags: adult, autumn, fall, grasses, heat, male, Phasianus colchicus, pheasant, pheasants, Pickleweed, Ring-necked Pheasant, upland terrestrial birds|

After a long, hot summer I always look forward to the first day of autumn because it usually means cooler temperatures along with the scenery becoming more colorful as the leaves begin to turn.

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A September Storm over Henry’s Lake And An Inspirational Thought For The Day

By Mia McPherson|September 6th, 2015|Categories: Beaverhead County, Centennial Valley, Conservation, Environment, Montana, Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge|Tags: autumn, fall, John F. Kennedy, storm clouds, stormy sky|

This image was taken last year at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge looking east towards Henry's Lake, Idaho.

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The Great Salt Lake is D(r)ying and Utah’s Water Crisis

By Mia McPherson|April 26th, 2015|Categories: American White Pelicans, Antelope Island State Park, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Birds, Black-necked Stilts, Box Elder County, Brine Flies, Conservation, Davis County, Eared Grebes, Environment, Franklin's Gulls, Northern Shovelers, Utah, Wilson's Phalaropes|Tags: American White Pelican, bird photography, birds, Black-necked Stilt, brine fly, brine shrimp, climate change, climate crisis, drought, drying, duck, ducks, dying, Eared Grebe, Great Basin hub, Great Salt Lake, grebe, grebes, habitat, hyper saline, hypersaline, migration, Northern Shoveler, Pacific Flyway, pelican, pelicans, phalarope, phalaropes, record low, shoveler, shovelers, water crisis, Wilson's Phalarope|

One thing I know for certain is that we can't drink dust.

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Sage Thrashers and the Rapidly Disappearing Sea of Sage

By Mia McPherson|March 22nd, 2015|Categories: Antelope Island State Park, Birds, Conservation, Davis County, Environment, Sage Thrashers, Utah|Tags: adult, climate change, desert island, habitat destruction, mating display, mimids, Oreoscoptes montanus, rabbitbrush, Sage Thrasher, sagebrush, sagebrush steppe, Sagebrush-Obligate species, singing, song birds, thrasher, thrashers|

Can the disappearance of Sagebrush Seas be stopped? Yes, it could be but we need lawmakers that believe in science and act on it.

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The idea of wilderness needs no defense

By Mia McPherson|November 20th, 2014|Categories: Conservation, Emery County, Environment, San Rafael Swell area, Utah|Tags: conservation, nature photography, preservation, wilderness|

This past Saturday I watched the movie "Wrenched" with two dear friends so it seemed only fitting to share a quote from Edward Abbey some time this week.

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Fracking does not belong in our National Wildlife Refuges

By Mia McPherson|April 18th, 2014|Categories: Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Beaverhead County, Birds, Box Elder County, Centennial Valley, Conservation, Environment, Montana, Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Swainson's Hawks, Utah|Tags: Buteo swainsoni, conservation, environment, fracking, National Wildlife Refuges, oil, pollution, preservation, Swainson's Hawk|

Oil and gas companies want to come in our National Wildlife refuges to explore for oil and natural gas, they want to exploit; not preserve and protect, the resources found within the boundaries of our National Wildlife System.

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California Gull On The Wing

By Mia McPherson|March 22nd, 2014|Categories: Antelope Island State Park, Birds, California Gulls, Environment, Utah|Tags: adult, breeding plumage, Buffalo Point, California Gull, Davis County, flight, flying, gull, gulls, Larus californicus, on the wing|

Photographing this California Gull on the wing was a highlight of my morning the day I took this photo. I love to photograph gulls.

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Good News on the San Rafael Swell

By Mia McPherson|November 19th, 2013|Categories: Conservation, Emery County, Environment, San Rafael Swell area, Utah|

Last Friday Juan Palma; the BLM state director, yanked most of the federal acreage within the San Rafael area that was slated to be on the auction block for oil and gas leases.

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Farmington Utah’s Voles – Just My Opinion

By Mia McPherson|June 25th, 2012|Categories: American Kestrels, Antelope Island State Park, Conservation, Coyotes, Environment, Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area, Glacier County, Great Blue Herons, Great Horned Owls, Loggerhead Shrikes, Montana, Northern Harriers, Rough-legged Hawks, Salt Lake Valley, Utah|Tags: American Kestrel, Coyote, ecosystem, environment, Foxboro Community, Gray Ghost, Great Blue Heron, Great Horned Owl, humane society, Loggerhead Shrike, natural predators, Northern Harrier, Rough-legged Hawk, Utah, vole infestation, voles|

Recently KSL.com; a Utah news station, had an article about a vole (a small rodent) infestation In Farmington, specifically in the neighborhood of Foxboro Community. While I sympathize with the residents about the damage being done to their yards I am disturbed by the advice many of the people commenting have left on the story.

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The Dangers of Fishing Line and Hooks for Birds and other Wildlife

By Mia McPherson|February 18th, 2012|Categories: Birds, Double-crested Cormorants, Environment, Fishing Line Dangers, Laughing Gulls, Pinellas County, White Ibises|Tags: amputations, dangers, death, Double-crested Cormorant, environment, fishermen, fishing line, fishing lures, health, Laughing Gull, lead weights, rescue, rescued, safety, strangulation, White Ibis|

The dangers of fishing line and hooks for birds and other wildlife are real and damaging.

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