Blizzards Of Snow Geese Now At Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge
Blizzards of Snow Geese have arrived at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge! I’m so excited about all of the Snow Geese that I can barely contain myself. Wow!
Blizzards of Snow Geese have arrived at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge! I’m so excited about all of the Snow Geese that I can barely contain myself. Wow!
Four years ago today, I found this gorgeous dark morph Ferruginous Hawk perched on a juniper fence post in the West Desert. I spotted it from about a mile away.
Nearly three years have passed since I found, pointed out, and photographed this stunning dark morph Ferruginous Hawk in the West Desert of Utah.
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.
Early yesterday morning on my way to the auto tour route at Bear River MBR I was delighted to see and photograph not just one dark morph Swainson's Hawk but two.
Yesterday morning I spotted this dark morph Red-tailed Hawk high on a cliff and I was able to photograph him as he lifted off with prey in his talons.
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.
The past couple of weeks on some of my journeys to the West Desert of Utah I have been able to have a few long distance views of Ferruginous Hawks and that has me excited.
These are the life stages of the Swainson's Hawks I see, observe and photograph here in Utah, Idaho and Montana.
I had so much fun photographing Reddish Egrets when I lived in Florida and could see them nearly every time I went to Fort De Soto County Park's north beach.
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.
It has been a long time since I had a dark morph Ferruginous Hawk in my view finder so when I spotted it hovering over a field I knew I had to stop and get photos of it.
I've shared photos of this gorgeous dark morph Swainson's Hawk before and I've written about how I believed it was the darkest, dark morph I had ever seen and to date that still holds true.
I was able to take these photos of the male Northern Harrier diving after his falling prey because I looked beyond my viewfinder and quickly locked onto the action happening overhead.
All of the Swainson's I photographed the first day of May last year were adults except for what I believe was a sub-adult dark morph Swainson's Hawk and I thought that hawk was a real beauty.
Just about one year ago I was thrilled to photograph a very cooperative dark morph Swainson's Hawk that is possibly the darkest, dark morph I have ever seen.
When I can get beautiful light on a Swainson's Hawk and deeply shadowed mountains in the background Mother Nature creates the drama.
Yesterday morning in northern Utah I saw about a dozen Swainson's Hawks in about 2.25 miles, some were perched, some were in flight and all of them were wonderful to photograph.
I was thrilled and delighted to photograph a very cooperative dark morph Swainson's Hawk up close yesterday morning in northern Utah.
One May morning in 2009 I was able to photograph both the dark and white morph Reddish Egret in breeding plumage just minutes and yards apart at Fort De Soto's north beach.
Harlan's Hawks are a subspecies of Red-tailed Hawks that breed in Alaska and northern Canada and spend their winters in the northern Great Plains.
This dark morph Swainson's Hawk was on a hillside that we came upon while leaving the Centennial Valley to head back to Utah.
The Reddish Egret is one of my favorite wading birds. Standing still they are a delight to the eyes and while hunting they can perform amazing turns, twists, gallops and appear to be dancing.
As a bird photographer I feel it is very important to me that my images show my subjects and the settings they are in as accurately as possible.
Recently I posted images of a Tricolored Heron and a Black-bellied Plover where I wrote that I enjoyed images that include habitat, the same could be said about this photo of a Reddish Egret hunting on the shoreline of the Gulf Coast.
Today I wanted to share another example of close up and full body images of another one of my favorite birds; the Reddish Egret.
The dark morph Ferruginous Hawk above had just lifted off from a power pole when I photographed it with a partly cloudy sky in the background.
Red-tailed Hawks have the most variable plumages of North American hawks but Swainson's Hawks are also pretty variable, there are light morphs, intermediate morphs and dark morphs.
I haven't had many opportunities to photograph the Harlan's subspecies of the Red-tailed Hawk so I was thrilled yesterday when I spotted a juvenile dark morph Harlan's Hawk feeding on a dead American Coot on the bank of a creek.