Northern Harrier – My First Raptor of 2024
The first raptor I photographed in 2024 was this young male Northern Harrier that I found near the refuge auto tour loop at Bear River MBR on New Year's Day.
The first raptor I photographed in 2024 was this young male Northern Harrier that I found near the refuge auto tour loop at Bear River MBR on New Year's Day.
Today I am sharing three photos of an immature female Northern Harrier that I took ten years ago at Farmington Bay WMA.
Just a quick post this morning of a photo of a 1st winter Common Goldeneye drake with a crawdad in his bill at my neighborhood pond taken last year.
A few days ago I had the opportunity to photograph this first winter Hooded Merganser at an urban pond that isn't far from where I live after a heavy snow.
Two days ago at one of my local ponds I was able to take only a few photos of a Hooded Merganser before it disappeared from my line of sight.
On this day two years ago, I photographed this immature male Common Goldeneye with a catfish at the pond in my neighborhood. It was a chilly, wintry afternoon.
On my last two trips up to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge I've stopped long enough to photograph a first winter Common Merganser on the Bear River.
Two days ago I spent a lot of time focused on a first winter Common Goldeneye drake as he swam, foraged, and ate at an urban pond close to home.
Yesterday morning I photographed an immature Red-tailed Hawk dining al fresco on the bank of the Bear River on my way back to I-15 to head home.
I did get out to find and photograph birds on Christmas Day at Farmington Bay WMA and then later in the morning I found more closer to home.
Yesterday morning I was able to take Ferruginous and Rough-legged Hawk lift off photos where both of the raptors still had their feet on their perches.
Today I am sharing two high key type images of an immature Red-tailed Hawk I photographed at Farmington Bay WMA.
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.
Yesterday and the day before I was able to observe and photograph winter Common Mergansers at my local pond on both sunny afternoons.
I spent a couple of hours yesterday photographing winter birds at Farmington Bay WMA and closer to home in the morning and afternoon.
I recently wrote about my excitement that American Herring Gulls have started showing up in northern Utah. Last week I was able to photograph some of them.
Three days ago I photographed an immature Great Blue Heron on ice from the auto tour route at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.
Yesterday morning at Farmington Bay I found and photographed a second winter Black-crowned Night Heron at the edge of the frozen marsh.
One of my Christmas Day gifts from Mother Nature was the chance to photograph an immature Great Blue Heron in a field.
Much to my delight I was able to photograph some birds on Christmas Day at Farmington Bay WMA yesterday morning.
Two years and one day ago I only photographed two birds on a trip out into the West Desert and this light morph Ferruginous Hawk made the trip well worth the journey out into the cold.
All three of the Hooded Mergansers were close to me because there was a shelf of ice that prevented them from swimming out into the middle of the pond.
Some winters here in the Salt Lake Valley I see quite a lot Common Mergansers while in other years I only see a few. I'm hoping that this winter I will see plenty of these beautiful, sleek diving ducks.
I found it interesting to see a first winter drake Common Goldeneye swimming with a first winter Common Merganser and decided to photograph them.
Why were the mallards sticking close to this Redhead? That was because she was diving down into the pond and bringing up aquatic vegetation to feed on and the mallards were stealing bits of it from her.
Both of these drake Common Goldeneyes were photographed on January 7, 2018, but they don't look quite the same.
Both of these portraits of a first winter Ring-billed Gull are of the same bird taken one minute apart just as the light changed from okay to much brighter where the gull had changed its location but only slightly.
I am itching to get back out into the field and one of the places I am most excited to get back to is Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in Box Elder County, Utah because of the Tundra Swans that I know are there.
I really did get a Christmas Goose yesterday when I spotted my first of winter Snow Goose that was resting on a boulder near the banks of the Jordan River yesterday.
I got lucky when a first winter drake Common Goldeneye flew towards me while coming in for a landing on the pond in sweet late afternoon light.