Desert Red-tailed Hawk Photos
While I was up in far northern Utah looking for birds last week, I took quite a few Red-tailed Hawk photos. I shared one image a few days ago and here are a few more.
While I was up in far northern Utah looking for birds last week, I took quite a few Red-tailed Hawk photos. I shared one image a few days ago and here are a few more.
I was thrilled to find and take pictures of a Townsend's Solitaire perched on the bare branches of a sumac on my journey yesterday morning to far northern Utah.
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.
Cute baby Uinta Ground Squirrel images have become a yearly tradition and desire for me and this week the babies were emerging from their burrows.
Today is special day here at On The Wing Photography because it marks my 4000th post AND it is also my Mom's 90th Birthday!
Yesterday I mentioned that a Pine Siskin chased away the Chipping Sparrow that I shared photos of. This is that Pine Siskin perched on another sage.
Two days ago I had a Chipping Sparrow in breeding plumage perched on sage at the edge of a forest in my viewfinder for a few seconds.
When I spotted the light colored breast of this immature light morph Red-tailed Hawk from a distance it seemed to glow in the morning light.
I think Rufous-bellied Phoebe would be a great name instead of Say's Phoebe, with or without the hyphen. It is certainly more descriptive.
One of the first birds I heard singing three days ago in the West Desert of Tooele County was a Lark Sparrow perched on top of a sagebrush.
While I was up in Box Elder County last week I photographed my first Western Willet of the year nestled in sage with its eye on the sky for possible predators.
I was happy to have these juvenile Mountain Bluebirds in my viewfinder yesterday and to be able to listen to their soft calls high on the sagebrush dotted hillside.
Over time I have come to associate Say's Phoebes with sagebrush because I don't think I have ever seen or photographed one of these phoebes where there wasn't sage nearby here in northern Utah.
As I photographed a pair of Uinta Ground Squirrels in a sagebrush high up in the Wasatch Mountains yesterday I realized that before long these squirrels will be gone from my view.
Yesterday in a Wasatch Mountain canyon I found a cooperative female American Robin resting on a perch on a hillside covered with sagebrush.
Three days ago while out on Antelope Island State Park under cloudy skies I was able to observe a glimpse into the mating behaviors of a pair of Western Meadowlarks.
I had fun photographing Western Kingbirds again yesterday on Antelope Island State Park and hours later I was still hearing their calls in my mind.
By the third or fourth visit to the area where the Western Kingbirds were located the sun was shining and the light was great. I felt like singing along with the kingbird to celebrate the clearing sky.
For the past week I have been anxiously awaiting my first sighting of Lark Sparrows and yesterday I finally saw them.
After a long dry spell for birds on Antelope Island today I was surprised to photograph this Mountain Chickadee, a bird I didn't expect to see on the island.
In the past 10 Days I have shared a Western Meadowlark and a Sage Thrasher perched on Sagebrush and today I am posting a Willet perched on Big Sagebrush.
Sage Thrashers are considered sagebrush obligates meaning that they require sagebrush for some part of their life cycle and for the Sage Thrashers in Utah that means they need it during the breeding cycle.
Yesterday was a bit like a wonderful open air concert on Antelope Island with the calls of Curlews, Willets, Chukars, Red-winged Blackbirds and Western Meadowlarks floating through the air.
Two days ago I posted a portrait of a juvenile Loggerhead Shrike that I had photographed on Antelope Island State Park, today I am posting an image of an adult Loggerhead Shrike taken a day after I photographed the young shrike.
It was great to get back out into the field yesterday and even better that there were some cooperative Lark Sparrows in my viewfinder.
A Loggerhead Shrike flew into a sagebrush and right after that I could hear a bird that sounded upset. The upset bird was this Northern Mockingbird.