I don't have many decent photos of immature Turkey Vultures so when I spotted several of them 11 days ago in northern Utah I was excited but my hopes for good light on the hatch year birds were dashed by clouds.
As it turns out this flycatcher gave me a wonderful behavioral clue that made identifying it a little easier for me because I watched it wag its tail slowly up and down repeatedly while perched which Gray Flycatchers are known to do.
Sometimes the colors of in a photo I have taken are what pleases me and draws me in even if my subject is small in the frame, in this case my subject was an adult White-crowned Sparrow.
Ruby-crowned Kinglets always seem to be on the move and blend into their habitat well which makes them challenging subjects to photograph. I love the challenge of photographing small birds though.
Okay, so you may be wondering who Luke is? Luke is my youngest grandchild, he is 11, he is in 5th grade and he lives in North Carolina.
My best photo of the morning was a Mule Deer doe in a stand of junipers and even then a cloud blocked the beautiful light. Yes, that is snow on the junipers, on May 1st!
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.
Native or introduced these purple wildflowers were a joy for me to see and photograph in the West Desert of Utah.
I went wandering to Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge yesterday and it was delightful because of the clear skies, the cool weather and the grand views of the mountains.
I don't see and photograph foxes as often as I would like to so this Red Fox was a surprise to me because I'd never seen one at this location before.
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 itching to get back out into the field because I want to see my first of the year Turkey Vultures on the wing.
I've had a like - dislike relationship with this male Yellow-rumped Warbler photo since I took it during migration last spring.
I adore sparrows and photograph them whenever I can so when this Chipping Sparrow popped up on a wild rose bush and looked in my direction I was ready to take its photo.
I was able to photograph two Ferruginous Hawks yesterday morning in the West Desert in Tooele County. The light was good, I had birds in my viewfinder and I was away from our building inversion so I was one happy woman.
Earlier this week I left home well before the sun came up, sat on my rear end for over five hours, traveled over 230 miles and the only decent image I took was of this American Goldfinch perched on a wild rose surrounded by scarlet rose hips.
I seem to have missed out on seeing lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers this year during their fall migration, I saw a few back in late September and early October but haven't seen any for some time.
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.
Some days one good bird is all I get and if I hadn't spotted this cooperative Mockingbird on a Fragrant Sumac in northern Utah yesterday I would have been mostly skunked.
The same morning that I photographed the Sage Thrasher with the berry in mid air I was also able to take a series of images of a Ruby-crowned Kinglet in the sweet golden light just after dawn.
The Sage Thrasher seemed like it was bathed in golden light when suddenly I saw that it had a sumac berry which it tossed it into the air and proceeded to swallow it whole.
I photographed this nonbreeding Chipping Sparrow the last week of September as it perched briefly on a wild rose, I love the pop of color the rose hips provided.
Yesterday I saw a single Vesper Sparrow which came in and perched out in the open on a lovely Wild Rose that was full of rose hips in nice light. What is not to like about that?
This Ruby-crowned Kinglet had been actively foraging in a tamarisk when suddenly it flew to this bare stick and perched out in the open for a few seconds.
I caught a flash of orange that drew my eye and watched as this male Flame Skimmer (Libellula saturata) dragonfly landed on a branch not far from where I had parked my Jeep.
As a bird photographer I have found that it is easy to make any species of owl look interesting and appealing in my images but it is more of a challenge to do that with Turkey Vultures but that doesn't mean I don't try. I will always try.
The wildflowers I photographed are Desert Globemallows (Sphaeralcea ambigua) and they were blooming abundantly on the road to the jetty, I don't think I have seen so many of them in full bloom before.
I have been trying to photograph this rufous morph Red-tailed Hawk in good light since the first time I spotted her on the 24th of March in northern Utah, yesterday I finally accomplished that goal.
The bird that was the most cooperative yesterday morning was a female American Kestrel that I spotted eating her prey on a lichen encrusted rock
The two times I have observed and photographed these Yellow-bellied Marmot pups I have enjoyed watching them explore the area around their burrow, not only are they cute they are also entertaining.