Save Owls By Not Using Rodent Poisons
Since spring's arrival, people will be spending time outdoors, and more people will be seeing rats in their yards and gardens. Owls eat rats and other rodents.
Since spring's arrival, people will be spending time outdoors, and more people will be seeing rats in their yards and gardens. Owls eat rats and other rodents.
On April Fool's Day of 2022, I was up in far northern Utah where I spotted this adult male Yellow-bellied Marmot warming up in the morning sun on a cliff.
Back in November of 2017, I took this photo of an adult Golden Eagle flying past a ridge in Box Elder County. I'm not sure why I never shared it until today.
I photographed this Say's Phoebe yesterday morning way up in northern Utah. There were actually two of the phoebes in the area but this one came in the closest.
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 last week, the first bird I photographed was this immature Red-tailed Hawk that seemed to have a surly attitude about it.
I had mere seconds to take this photo of a pair of Mourning Doves perched on lichen covered rocks on a desert cliff face in Box Elder County yesterday morning.
Any time I have a Rock Wren in my viewfinder is a good day for me. Yesterday was an especially good day because I had two nesting adult Rock Wrens to focus on.
I found and pointed out quite a few birds yesterday but my favorite was this young Golden Eagle on a cliff in morning light because it was so beautiful.
Among the birds I found was a desert dwelling Red-tailed Hawk adult who was busy refurbishing a nest on a cliff face.
I almost missed finding this adult dark morph Red-tailed Hawk last Sunday because when I first spotted the hawk he was behind a tree in dark shadows but I recognized the shape and form of the raptor.
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.
Yesterday I went up to northern Utah hoping to take photos of some Red-tailed Hawk chicks that I know will soon be leaving their nest and I found them.
Around the middle of March while photographing nesting hawks I spotted a bit of movement and saw this Yellow-bellied Marmot resting on a cliff.
Last week I spotted and photographed a mated Red-tailed Hawk pair on the branches of a tree in front of a cliff in early morning light.
Red-tailed Hawk nesting season has started in northern Utah and I found a few pairs yesterday morning that have already gotten busy with nest building.
This morning I wanted to share a few photos of a stunning rufous Red-tailed Hawk female that I photographed over a period of a couple of years.
I have taken thousands of images of Yellow-bellied Marmots where the marmots have been closer but very few of them that include as much habitat as this photo does.
The female Red-tailed Hawk blended into the lichen covered cliff face so well that even with my sharp eyesight I didn't see her until the male landed next to her.
I reached back into my archives and found this photo of a side lit Great Horned Owl in desert habitat that I spotted from one of the dirt access roads that lead to the Mt. Moriah Wilderness of eastern Nevada in 2012.
The best bird I spotted that I could photograph was a male Red-tailed Hawk resting on a cliff face and what I loved about this photo was all the grasses, lichen, wildflowers and the sage high up on the cliff.
I had a great time photographing this beautiful rufous Red-tailed Hawk yesterday morning and I'm glad I had good light when I did.
I'm happy to see that the rufous female Red-tailed Hawk does have a mate and that they are building a nest to raise their young in, I hope they are successful.
Last month I was able to take my best photos of Rock Wrens so far since I moved to Utah but even those aren't as close to the bird as I would have liked them to be.
I spotted two of the other Red-tailed Hawk chicks that I have been following since early spring and was delighted that they have now fledged and have both learned to fly.
Finding a flock of Wild Turkeys close enough to photograph in the Promontory Mountain Range of Box Elder County yesterday was exciting and challenging too.
I enjoyed seeing the Red-tailed Hawks yesterday and observing their nesting maintenance behavior in the Fall, I don't see it very often so it makes it special to me.
When I photographed this Red-tailed Hawk lifting off from the nest it was in mid-April and I don't believe they had laid their eggs yet.
I am not sure why the Red-tailed Hawk lifted off with nesting material in its bill from the nest, maybe the hawk felt that piece of nesting material wasn't suitable.
This past September I spotted an adult Red-tailed Hawk perched high on a rocky canyon wall as it looked out over the cold waters of Elk Lake in Beaverhead County, Montana.