Common Mergansers Landing & Lifting Off
I'm over the moon that I was able to photograph these Common Mergansers landing and lifting off from the pond yesterday and I am pleased with the photos I took.
I'm over the moon that I was able to photograph these Common Mergansers landing and lifting off from the pond yesterday and I am pleased with the photos I took.
While at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge two days ago I spotted my first of the season Common Merganser from the auto tour route.
It was a fine Autumn morning for photographing Wild Turkeys in northern Utah yesterday because the skies were mostly clear and the turkeys were a bit more cooperative than usual.
Mallards form pairs in the fall and courtship can seen during the winter and seeing them mating in February isn't all that unusual.
I spent time photographing a few Rough-legged Hawks but my personal choice for birds of the day were the Common Mergansers I observed and photographed.
I noticed a Mallard hen and was watching and photographing her when the gulls swarmed around her like bees do honey and caught her immediately after a Ring-billed Gull grabbed her bread right out of her bill.
Yesterday at Farmington Bay I was pleased to photograph this juvenile Northern Harrier female in flight as she went past me while I sat in a mobile blind.
Maybe next time I up in the canyons I will get lucky and spot some of the Wild Turkeys that make their home in the Stansbury Mountains.
This is National Wildlife Refuge Week and in celebration I wanted to do a pictorial essay that includes some of my images of the Birds of Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.
This beautiful Northern Shoveler drake in breeding plumage was photographed in one of those no hunting areas on New Years Day 2015 at Farmington Bay.
Temps were probably in the teens when I photographed this juvenile harrier in January of 2010 at Farmington Bay. Ahhh.
On the day I photographed this Wood Duck hen with her duckling the duckweed covered the surface.
Because I was close I wasn't able to get a single image with all of the ducklings and the hen in the frame so I focused on the Mallard hen and with one duckling resting right behind her.
It is interesting to see this whirlpool effect of Northern Shovelers on the surface of the Great Salt Lake and to hear the sounds of their bills dabbling in the water.
I spent a little bit of time yesterday morning photographing a few birds including this Northern Harrier in flight over Farmington Bay WMA.
I photographed this Redhead hen yesterday morning at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge as she floated on the Bear River.
Since the snow has started to fall in the high country of Utah I have started thinking about Greater Sage-Grouse again.
Last December on the way off of Antelope Island I saw huge flocks of Northern Shovelers feeding on the Great Salt Lake and liked how they appeared through my viewfinder.
Just a quick post this morning from Wayne County, Utah of a Wild Turkey hen I saw feeding near a small pond on the way up to Boulder Top yesterday.
Sometimes after a period of high activity I simply need to rest and relax or duck out into nature's wild grandeur to refresh.
This series of Ruddy Duck images took just a little less than 8 seconds and then she tucked her bill back under her scapular and closed her eyes again.
Last February; when there was actually snow on the ground, I photographed a pair of Redhead ducks at a pond near where I live.
I love to photograph birds in flight and it doesn't matter which species it is. But I do thoroughly enjoy photographing raptors like this Northern Harrier as they fly by.
If hope is the thing with feathers then I want to heap as much hope as I can find into the future of Greater Sage-Grouse.
I've mentioned in another post that "Some Days are Magic" and I felt that magic the morning I created this image of a Red-breasted Merganser.
Some times when I open a photo I took I can't help but laugh for various reasons, in this case when I opened the file the pose of this Ruddy Duck female just "quacked" me up.
I saw and photographed my first Greater Sage-Grouse this summer in Beaverhead County, Montana while traveling through the Centennial Valley. Yay! Lifer!
I don't see Dusky Grouse near as often as I would like to see them so I was quite happy when I saw several of them last week on my way up Skyline Drive to Bountiful Peak in northern Utah.
Just a simple high key image of a hen Ring-necked Pheasant this morning that was taken in January at Farmington Bay WMA in Davis County, Utah.
I have been noticing more Ring-necked Pheasants than usual of late but that it mostly because the birds don't blend well into the snow and we have had plenty of the white stuff fall the past few weeks.