Tree Swallows Have Migrated Into Northern Utah
Over the weekend, I read on Facebook that Tree Swallows have migrated back into Northern Utah for their breeding season. I am so excited about that news!
Over the weekend, I read on Facebook that Tree Swallows have migrated back into Northern Utah for their breeding season. I am so excited about that news!
It was my first full spring in Utah, nearly 14 years ago, when my keen eyes were used to find my first Black-billed Magpie nest on Antelope Island State Park.
Yesterday morning, I was surprised to find Great Blue Herons already at the nests of the rookery at Farmington Bay WMA. There were more than twenty herons.
All across the country it is nesting season for many North American birds. For some nesting birds it is also a very dangerous time because of fishing line.
While up high in the Uinta Mountains yesterday morning I photographed this female Tree Swallow checking out a nesting cavity in a Quaking Aspen.
The breeding season has begun for the Great Blue Herons at the Farmington Bay rookery and throughout northern Utah.
After taking photos of Cliff Swallows gathering nesting materials two days ago I took more House Wren photos of the nesting pair I found in the Wasatch Mountains.
Yesterday morning I photographed Cliff Swallows gathering nesting materials and fighting in bright morning light high in the Wasatch Mountains.
This morning I wanted to share a few Red-naped Sapsucker photos I have taken while in gorgeous alpine forests of Idaho and Utah.
I was hoping to find my first of the year Swainson's Hawks yesterday but instead I spotted my first of year Ospreys.
It is Black-billed Magpie nesting season on Antelope Island State Park and throughout their breeding range in western North America.
Red-tailed Hawk nesting season has started in northern Utah and I found a few pairs yesterday morning that have already gotten busy with nest building.
On my last visit to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge I heard the unmistakable song of a Marsh Wren singing and throughout the morning I heard more of their songs.
I will not be sad to see February 2021 in the rear view mirror. It has been the second worst month for bird photography on record for me. Ever.
My best opportunities photographing the adult MacGillivray's Warblers with food for their young yesterday happened when the female popped into view with prey in her bill.
The female Yellow Warbler often flew in, landed out in the open and then dove down to deliver the prey she had gathered to her chick that was hidden in the willows.
Despite the difficulties I have finding and photographing MacGillivray's Warblers I will keep trying to take better images of them.
Tree Swallows and other birds should be nesting in the Uinta Mountains by now and I am itching to hop into my Jeep to drive up there to find them.
Three days ago I spotted my first of the year Snowy Egret at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge when two egrets flew out of a ditch on the way to the auto tour loop.
For one and a half wonderful nesting seasons I was thrilled to photograph a pair of mated Williamson's Sapsuckers excavating a nest and tending to their young.
The female Red-tailed Hawk blended into the lichen covered cliff face so well that even with my sharp eyesight I didn't see her until the male landed next to her.
When White-faced Ibis are in breeding plumage it is easy to see how they got their common name, in nonbreeding plumage, not so much.
By using a vehicle as a mobile blind I was able to photograph the wrens as they sang, searched for nesting materials, defended their breeding territories and built their nests from a distance.
I am more than thrilled to once again observe and photograph nesting Black-billed Magpies using the same greasewood where I first photographed them almost ten years ago.
These nesting House Wren photos were taken two years ago at the end of May high up in the Uinta Mountains where stands of aspens are used as nesting trees.
I tried to get up into a canyon in the Stansbury Mountains yesterday but was met with a closed gate so I turned my Jeep around and decided that I would explore a different canyon.
Two days ago I spent time photographing nesting House Wrens in the high Uintas near Mirror Lake Highway, of interest to me is that two years ago I photographed Red-naped Sapsuckers using this same nesting cavity.
Barn Swallows are like tiny, feathered brick masons. One pellet by itself is nothing but combined pellets form the nests these birds use to raise their young in.
Barn Swallows have returned for the nesting season here in northern Utah and if they aren't already building nests they will be constructing them very soon.
It is breeding season for Killdeer at Bear River MBR and for all of Utah.