Resting Northern Harrier
Farmington Bay Waterfowl Area used to be my "go to" place for photographing Northern Harriers but this winter they are hard to find.
Farmington Bay Waterfowl Area used to be my "go to" place for photographing Northern Harriers but this winter they are hard to find.
In the winter I shoot a lot in fog, smog and low light conditions here in northern Utah but if you follow my blog you probably already know that and have heard me mention it a time or two (or four or a hundred).
Happy Holidays - White Crowned Sparrow
This Red-tailed Hawk image was taken just after the juvenile lifted off from the nest box and while I love the pose I do wish the light had been a bit better.
Eye color can be used to sex juvenile Northern Harriers, brown for juvenile females and yellowish for the males and this harrier is a definite brown-eyed beauty.
One of the food items that White-crowned Sparrows depend on during the harsh winters in Utah are the fluffy seeds of the Rabbitbrush that can be covered in hoar frost.
Ferruginous Hawks are the largest hawk in North America which are only found in Canada and the United States and recent DNA analysis suggests that Ferruginous Hawks may be closer to Eagles in taxonomy than that of a hawk.
I like Brown Pelicans and even though I don't see them here in Utah I have plenty of images on file that I took during the period of time that I lived in Florida.
I have so very much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. I see the most incredible things in nature, I am blessed to be able to capture it all through my lens.
Simple things in nature delight me so being able to photograph this juvenile White-crowned Sparrow on a wild rose did just that, it delighted me.
Great Horned Owls and old wood just seem to go together, the warm tones of the wood are a great compliment to the same tones in the plumage of Great Horned Owls.
In 2008 I spent several months during the summer watching an American Oystercatcher family from the time the chicks were tiny until one of the chicks became independent.
Lately I have been seeing White-crowned Sparrows in the West Desert, at Farmington Bay WMA and Antelope Island State Park in increasing numbers and many of them will over winter here in the Salt Lake Valley.
After posting an image of a American White Pelican lifting off two days ago I thought I should post an photo of a Brown Pelican today for comparison.
Cute Alert! Whenever I see Western Grebe chicks riding piggyback on their parents I can't help thinking that there is a definite cute factor going on right in front of me.
I love the descriptive name "Tiger of the Sky" when referring to Great Horned Owls, they are fierce, fearless and ferocious and the young owl in the image above is a 'Tiger in the Sky" in the making.
Quite often I don't have much time at all to get ready to take images because you need to get close to the subject, find a good angle of light and make sure your camera settings will produce the best image for the conditions.
Burrowing Owls are iconic birds of Antelope Island State Park, I can't tell you how many times people write to me and ask "Where can I see Burrowing Owls on Antelope Island State Park?".
One of the juvenile Red-tailed Hawks I photographed on Antelope Island last year has "migrated" to Switzerland where my photo of it will be featured on a 5 x 15 meter sign for a yacht company.
I'm having a blast meeting and photographing the new generation of Western Grebes at the refuge.
Yesterday was frustrating for me near Snowville, Utah because there were raptors all around but not many of them were close enough to photograph and the ones that were close were either vey skittish or wouldn't fly off of the power poles even after long periods of time.
Since my first visit to the Centennial Valley of Montana on June 18, 2010 I have wanted to photograph a bird; preferably a raptor, on the reddish orange lichen covered rocks found throughout the valley. On this last trip that finally happened!
Eastern Kingbirds; like their western counterpart, are fearless and will attack birds as large as Bald Eagles to defend their nests.
It won't be long before Swainson's Hawks start to migrate to South America and some may already have started their journey south.
Last month while up in Montana I saw this young Red-tailed Hawk just standing in the road looking around and not acting the least bit concerned about the pickup or the two large lens that were pointed at it.
I don't often have the opportunity to photograph juvenile Western Kingbirds but last week I did at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in Box Elder County.
Last month and this month I wrote about Mountain Bluebirds in several posts that included images of adult males and females, today I am posting one image of the many fledglings I saw last week.
Yes, I was mobbed by Loggerhead Shrikes and I didn't mind a bit because it afforded me the opportunity to observe and photograph them up close and it was fascinating!
I want to thank Neil Paprocki for sharing information about Al Larson and the upcoming film The Bluebird Man, I have learned a lot from the web site and through my interview with Neil and I am all for learning more about the wonderful natural world around me.
Four years ago today I woke up in Grand Island, Nebraska and drove west to arrive in Salt Lake City with my possessions in a U-Haul trailer.