fighting – Mia McPherson's On The Wing Photography

Urban American Coot Close Up Photos

By Mia McPherson|February 11th, 2024|Categories: American Coots, Birds, Salt Lake County, Utah|Tags: adult, American Coot, behavior, close up, coot, coots, eating, feeding, feet, fight, fighting, fish, foot, frost, Fulica americana, grass, grasses, marsh, mating, park, pond, prey, reflections, ruckus, spring, urban, water, winter|

Because it was a bright, sunny day yesterday morning, I went down to my local ponds. I photographed an American Coot munching on frosty grass near one of them.

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Fall Redhead Drake Photos

By Mia McPherson|November 23rd, 2023|Categories: Birds, Redheads, Salt Lake County, Utah|Tags: adult, autumn, Aythya americana, bill, breeding plumage, diving ducks, drake, drink, duck, ducks, duo, fall, fight, fighting, food, full, male, park, pond, Redhead, Redhead Duck, reflections, swimming, urban, water|

On a cold morning two days ago, I had two Redhead drakes in my viewfinder at my local pond. the light was lovely and so were the ducks.

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American Coots Fighting – Pond Pugilists

By Mia McPherson|April 30th, 2023|Categories: American Coots, Birds, Salt Lake County, Utah|Tags: adult, aggressive, American Coot, battle, battling, behavior, combative, come to blows, coot, coots, fight, fighting, kicking, knock down, park, pond, ruckus, Salt Lake County, spring, urban, Utah, water, winding down, wing slapped|

While I was at my local pond three days ago, I took my best-to-date images of fighting American Coots. I had a blast and laughed a lot while I took them.

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Crazy About Common Loons

By Mia McPherson|April 15th, 2023|Categories: Birds, Common Loons, Salt Lake County, Utah|Tags: adult, breeding plumage, calling, chased, close up, Common Loon, defensive posture, dripping, fighting, fishing lure, Gavia immer, loon, loons, passing, pond, portrait, rushing, Salt Lake County, spring, spring migration, urban, Utah, Vulture Posture, water, waterbirds|

Yesterday morning I didn't go out looking for Common Loons. But I found two and they were fighting, calling, preening and getting up close and personal with me.

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Snowy Egret Photos – Farmington Bay Opening Day

By Mia McPherson|September 17th, 2021|Categories: Birds, Davis County, Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area, Snowy Egrets, Utah|Tags: adult, behavior, chasing, Covid, dashing, defensive, egret, egrets, Egretta thula, fight, fighting, flight, flying, hair style, head on, landing, lift off, lifting off, marsh, Snowy Egret, summer, take off, taking off, tip toe, tiptoe, wading birds, water, wetlands, wing tip, wingtip, wooden pole|

Yesterday was kind of an opening day at Farmington Bay and the Snowy Egret show was the highlight of the day.

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Cliff Swallows Gathering Nesting Materials

By Mia McPherson|June 23rd, 2021|Categories: Birds, Cliff Swallows, Summit County, Utah, Wasatch Mountains|Tags: adult, aggressive behavior, behavior, canyon, Cliff Swallow, fighting, fluttering, mountains, nest building, nesting material, nesting materials, nesting season, Petrochelidon pyrrhonota, summer, Summit County, swallow, swallows, Utah, Wasatch Mountains, wings|

Yesterday morning I photographed Cliff Swallows gathering nesting materials and fighting in bright morning light high in the Wasatch Mountains.

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Long-Billed Curlews – Spring Birds I look Forward To

By Mia McPherson|March 14th, 2021|Categories: Birds, Long-billed Curlews|Tags: adult, breeding grounds, curlew, curlews, displaying, fighting, grasses, Long-billed Curlew, male, mating season, Numenius americanus, shorebirds, sparring, spring, territorial behavior|

Spring birds I look forward to seeing and hearing include Long-billed Curlews which should be arriving in northern Utah any day now.

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Photographing Winter Birds

By Mia McPherson|January 15th, 2021|Categories: American Coots, Bald Eagles, Birds, Black-crowned Night Herons, Canvasbacks, Common Goldeneyes, Common Mergansers, Davis County, Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area, Great-tailed Grackles, Mallards, Pied-billed Grebes, Redheads, Salt Lake County, Utah|Tags: adult, American Coot, Anas platyrhynchos, Aythya americana, Aythya valisineria, Bald Eagle, birds of prey, Black-crowned Night Heron, breeding plumage, Bucephala clangula, Canvasback, chase, close up, Common Goldeneye, Common Merganser, coot, coots, dabbling ducks, dicks, displaying, diving ducks, drake, duck, ducks, eagle, eagles, female, fight, fighting, first winter, flight, flying, food, frisky, Fulica americana, goldeneye, goldeneyes, grackle, grackles, Great-tailed Grackle, grebe, grebes, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, heron, herons, immature, male, mallards, marsh, merganser, mergansers, Mergus merganser, night heron, night herons, Nycticorax nycticorax, Pied-billed Grebe, Podilymbus podiceps, pond, portrait, prey, Quiscalus mexicanus, raptors, Redhead, redheads, swimming, wading birds, water, waterfowl, weather loach, winter, young|

I spent a couple of hours yesterday photographing winter birds at Farmington Bay WMA and closer to home in the morning and afternoon.

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Drake Common Goldeneye With Pigment Issues On His Bill

By Mia McPherson|December 13th, 2020|Categories: Birds, Common Goldeneyes, Salt Lake County, Utah|Tags: adult, bill, breeding plumage, Bucephala clangula, Common Goldeneye, Definitive Alternate Plumage, Definitive Basic Plumage, diving ducks, drake, fighting, flapping, goldeneye, goldeneyes, lack of pigment, male, nonbreeding plumage, odd colored bill, pigment isses, pond, preening, Salt Lake County, settling, swimming, Utah, water, waterfowl, white on bill, wind, windy, wings, winter|

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.

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Pair of Reddish Egrets Fighting Over Food

By Mia McPherson|February 16th, 2018|Categories: Birds, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Reddish Egrets|Tags: egret, egrets, Egretta rufescens, fighting, food, Hurricane Ike, lagoon, north beach, Reddish Egret, wading birds, windy|

I had been photographing just one Reddish Egret dancing in the waves as it caught fish after fish and fought with the Ring-billed and Laughing Gulls over its prey when a second Reddish Egret flew in.

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Brief But Aggressive Encounter Between Pied-Billed Grebes

By Mia McPherson|December 18th, 2017|Categories: Birds, Pied-billed Grebes, Salt Lake County, Utah|Tags: aggressive, Agonistic Behavior, behavior, bill, fight, fighting, grebe, grebes, neck, nonbreeding, Pied-billed Grebe, Podilymbus podiceps, pond, territorial behavior, territorial dispute, water, winter|

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.

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Focusing On Male Common Goldeneyes

By Mia McPherson|December 15th, 2017|Categories: Birds, Common Goldeneyes, Salt Lake County, Utah|Tags: behavior, Bucephala clangula, Common Goldeneye, diving, diving ducks, drakes, duck, ducks, fighting, male, shaking, tail, threat display, waterfowl, wing flapping|

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.

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Post-breeding Season Aggressive Behavior in American Avocets Plus a Bonus Great Horned Owl

By Mia McPherson|August 20th, 2016|Categories: American Avocets, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Birds, Box Elder County, Great Horned Owls, Utah|Tags: aggression, aggressive, American Avocet, avocets, behavior, birds of prey, Bubo virginianus, fighting, Great Horned Owl, owls, Physical contact, shorebirds|

I am unable to find information on line about why this male American Avocet attacked the female so aggressively but I can say that it was fascinating to see and photograph it.

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Bison Bulls Fighting In The Snow And Missing My Camera Blues

By Mia McPherson|October 2nd, 2015|Categories: American Bison, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah|Tags: Bison, Bison bison, buffalo, bulls, fighting, nature photography, Nikon D810, repair, snow, wildlife, wildlife photography|

This photo of Bison bulls fighting in the snow on Antelope Island State Park was taken the end of December 2014 with the Nikon D810 using a high ISO because it was so dreary that morning

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Young Bison Fighting and a Big, Dark Bull

By Mia McPherson|February 26th, 2015|Categories: American Bison, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah|Tags: adult, American Bison, Bison, bisons, bull, bulls, butting, butting heads, desert island, fight, fighting, heads, nature photography, spar, wildlife photography|

Last week while looking for birds on Antelope Island I was fortunate to watch and photograph two young Bison fighting by butting heads.

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Fighting Red-tailed Hawk juveniles

By Mia McPherson|August 30th, 2014|Categories: Birds, Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area, Red-tailed Hawks, Utah|Tags: bird of prey, Buteo jamaicensis, Davis County, fighting, flight, Hawks of Utah, immature, juvenile, nature photography, Red-tailed Hawk, wildlife photography|

I wonder if these two juvenile Red-tailed Hawks will hang around for the winter, I sure hope so.

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A Morning with the Wild Horses of the West Desert

By Mia McPherson|May 6th, 2014|Categories: Mustangs, Tooele County, Utah, West Desert|Tags: colts, fighting, foals, grazing, mares, nature photography, Onaqui herd, Onaqui Wild Horses, stallions, wild horses, wildlife, wildlife photography|

I checked one of the items off of my bucket list yesterday morning when I spent time photographing, observing and being surrounded by a herd of wild Horses.

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Northern Harrier chasing a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk

By Mia McPherson|November 14th, 2012|Categories: Antelope Island State Park, Birds, Davis County, Northern Harriers, Red-tailed Hawks, Utah|Tags: aerial dogfight, bird photography, Buteo jamaicensis, chasing, Circus hudsonius, fight, fighting, flight, flying, hariers, harrier, hawk, hawks, immature, juvenile, Northern Harrier, playing, raptors, Red-tailed Hawk|

This image of a Northern Harrier and a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk in an aerial dogfight over Antelope Island State Park was taken the day before the recent snow storm started that we had here in the Salt Lake Valley over the weekend.

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American Bison in the Snow

By Mia McPherson|November 11th, 2012|Categories: American Bison, Antelope Island State Park, Utah|Tags: adult, American Bison, Antelope Island State Park, buffalo, bull, cow, Davis County, desert island, fighting, Great Salt Lake, low light, male, mountains, nature, nature photography, snow, snow covered, snow storm, Utah, wildlife, wildlife photography, winter|

We've gotten a lot of snow in the Salt Lake Valley since Friday, I swept at least a foot of snow off my vehicle yesterday and about 3 to 4 inches on Friday, as I write this the snow is still falling.

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Long-billed Curlews – A Territorial Encounter

By Mia McPherson|April 14th, 2012|Categories: Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Long-billed Curlews, Utah|Tags: Agonistic Behavior, Communicative Interactions, Crouch-Run, curlew, curlews, fighting, Long-billed Curlew, Numenius americanus, shorebirds, Supplanting, territorial encounter, Wing-Raising|

Yesterday on Antelope Island State Park I witnessed and photographed a territorial encounter between two Long-billed Curlew (Numenius americanus) males that occurred while a female was nearby.

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Chukars and Fighting for the Right to Mate

By Mia McPherson|March 15th, 2012|Categories: Antelope Island State Park, Birds, Chukars, Davis County, Utah|Tags: adult, aggressive, Agonistic Behavior, Alectoris chukar, battle, breeding behavior, breeding season, Chukar, chukars, dominant male, fighting, loser, mating, mating rights, nesting territory, pinned down, sparring, spring, territorial, upland terrestrial birds|

The behavior of the Chukars indicates that the males are already acting territorial and fighting for the right to mate.

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