American Coot Stink Eye And Diving Images
Today I am sharing some recent American Coot images where the coot is giving me the stink eye and diving. The images were taken at a pond close to home.
Today I am sharing some recent American Coot images where the coot is giving me the stink eye and diving. The images were taken at a pond close to home.
I had a great time observing and photographing a Pied-billed Grebe exhibiting Crash-dive behavior at Bear River MBR from the auto tour loop on Monday.
I meant to share this photo of a Drake Redhead diving weeks ago, but when the loons arrived at my local pond, I completely forgot that I had processed it.
On my trip up to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge last week I was delighted to see and hear both Clark's and Western Grebe species from the auto tour loop.
While I was at Bear River MBR on Tuesday I found and photographed the Horned Grebe that I have been seeing at the refuge since the second day of the New Year.
As the tail end of 2021 comes to a close it seemed fitting that the last photo I took yesterday was the tail end of a Common Goldeneye on what might have been my last trip into the field this year.
My post yesterday was about my computer not booting which messed up my morning post. Today my post is about getting my computer to boot yet I'm still feeling frazzled.
I started my morning off yesterday in the Wasatch Mountains photographing an American Mink family that appeared on the bank of a creek.
Two days ago I photographed a Ruddy Duck close to home at my local pond. I was only able to take 14 image of it before it dove under the water and swam away.
Typically I have a personal rule about having eye contact with my subject and I also want a catch light but to get this coot photo I had to break my own bird photography rules.
Bird photography was a little slow at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge yesterday morning until I spotted a Common Loon floating on the Bear River.
I'm hoping that this week I'll be able to spot my first of the season Rough-legged Hawks and that I'll be able to get photos of them too. Fingers are crossed!
There are times when one bird can make my day and yesterday that bird was an immature Red-tailed Hawk that I spotted just before heading home after a trip into the mountains that included fog and other challenges.
I always feel fortunate when I am able to photograph winter Barn Owls in flight during daylight hours but that means that these gorgeous owls are struggling to stay alive and that is a concern for me.
Primarily I focused on a drake Common Goldeneye that was busy foraging for food and that kept diving under the surface of the water close enough to take frame filling images of him.
By sharing these photos today my intention is to show that there are times when photographic rules can be broken because the appeal of images or the lack of appeal is all about the individual tastes of the photographer taking the photos and those of the people that view them.
I like this image because I was able to capture the eye of this diving first winter drake Common Goldeneye just as it is about to go below the surface of the pond but I also like what is going on with the water in this frame too.
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.
The drake Lesser Scaup did come in close enough to be able to take a few images of it where it almost filled the frame before a man and his dog walked by and caused the scaup to make a hasty retreat to the middle of the pond.
I spent fifty-five minutes primarily focusing on male Common Goldeneyes yesterday afternoon and I am very happy with the images I took of these beautiful diving ducks.
The plumage of male juvenile Red-winged Blackbirds is highly variable during their first year, some of the young blackbirds can look like females and some can look more like adult males.
I did find one jewel in the images, a photo of one of the adult Red-naped Sapsuckers flying away from the nesting cavity looking like a bullet.
Is it any wonder I feel like the juvenile White-crowned Sparrow in this photo that is hiding its head? My inbox is getting junked up and my delete key is smoking from deleting the Cyber Monday sales pitches.
When I looked at this Burrowing Owl image on my monitor I had to chuckle because in a strange way it reminded me of myself when I first dove off of a 10 meter platform and how my toes were the last to let go.
Last February; when there was actually snow on the ground, I photographed a pair of Redhead ducks at a pond near where I live.
Just a simple image today that I have always liked because of the action even though I don't have great eye contact with my subject, a Ring-billed Gull.
These images of a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk in Beaverhead County were taken on Sunday morning, June 22nd while leaving southwestern Montana to head back to Utah.
This Northern Harrier displayed interesting behavior, it didn't appear to be hunting but it would dive into the vegetation where it would make a sound that reminded me of parrots chattering.
Though I quite often photograph birds so that they are what is labled "frame filling" I also like to compose images that show the bird or animals small in the frame.