Nesting Lark Sparrow Photos
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.
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.
Three days ago I watched as a male Belted Kingfisher caught a small fish, landed on a branch and swallowed his catch of the day high in the Wasatch Mountains.
The first bird I saw in 2021 was a European Starling perched on a power line on the road to my local grocery store about 8:15 am yesterday morning.
When I got back home and uploaded the images I took of the drake Common Goldeneye I could see that his bill had pigment issues and that it wasn't a white feather stuck on his bill.
I listen for birds everywhere I go. Their calls and songs help me to locate them so I can photograph and observe them as they go about their lives.
I wanted to share this particular image today and explain how I got this shot of an upside down male Nashville Warbler hanging on a willow branch while foraging for aphids.
Two days ago near a creek in the Wasatch Mountains I took the funniest Yellow Warbler photo I have ever taken in all the years that I have been photographing birds.
I was "over the moon" excited when I spotted an adult male Nashville Warbler out in the open at the top of a willow yesterday while up in the Wasatch Mountains.
Several Yellow Warblers flew into the serviceberry and in this photo I can see that this female has been feeding on the ripe berries because her lower mandible has a juicy residue on it.
When I saw a Gray Catbird fledgling inch its way up a stick two days ago and then exhibit begging behavior by raising its wings and opening its bill I locked on to it.
Eight days ago I photographed my first male Yellow Warbler of the year and two days ago I had some luck with my first females of the season.
I spent some time yesterday morning focused on photographing an immature Black-crowned Night Heron at the dawn of the day in the marsh at Farmington Bay WMA.
When the American Coots come close to me I am also able to take portraits of them that show their red eyes and their ivory colored bills with their reddish-brown frontal shields.
Because I have spent so much time out in the West Desert lately I have seen and heard quite a few Juniper Titmice moving through the junipers that dot the slopes of the mountains and foothills.
I photograph birds all the time and there are a few that simply take my breath away and totally mesmerize me, this dark morph Ferruginous Hawk is one of those birds.
I didn't get the Brown Creeper photos I have been dreaming of yesterday but I did take lovely images of an immature Ferruginous Hawk in early morning, golden light.
I'd watched the Greater Yellowlegs foraging and most of the time the prey was too tiny to see but this little fish was a nice catch for the shorebird and for me.
Just a simple post today of the colorful insides of a Ring-billed Gull's bill that I photographed yesterday morning at Farmington Bay WMA as it yawned.
It seems I also photographed an odd, little hitchhiker on the lore and bill of the White-faced Ibis when I took these photos.
On my visit to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge last week I didn't see large numbers of American White Pelicans but at this time of the year that is understandable because many of them are probably nesting on Gunnison Island right now.
An American Coot with a dirty bill wasn't shy at all when it climbed out of the pond close enough for me to take portraits of it.
Spending time photographing Yellow Warblers can try the patience of even the most patient photographer because they are so flighty, small and move quickly but it can also be rewarding when you get photos that you like.
It is hard to figure out who is the lucky duck here, the Common Goldeneye for catching the crayfish or me for seeing the duck with the crayfish and photographing it.
The funniest photo I took yesterday, the one that made me laugh out loud the hardest, was when a crayfish landed on the Pied-billed Grebe's head after the bird shook it hard.
This aggressive encounter between the two Pied-billed Grebes only lasted a few seconds and if I hadn't been paying attention I would have missed photographing it.
I just don't know but I do know I have never seen an American White Pelican in flight with its bill looking like this ever before and I have photographed them hundreds of times in flight.
To me it looks like this American White Pelican was doing an impression of a floating, domestic white turkey because when the pelican was facing me nearly head on the length of pelican's long bill seemed to disappear
Two days ago I had a few fleeting moments with an immature Black-chinned Hummingbird that flew in and landed close to me and I relished every second with it.
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.
Normally I prefer natural perches for my subjects but I rather enjoyed photographing these Turkey Vultures and thinking of them as feathered gatekeepers.