Burrowing Owls of Northern Utah
It might be a long drive in the wee hours of the morning to get to where these Burrowing Owls are in northern Utah during the breeding season but they are worth it
It might be a long drive in the wee hours of the morning to get to where these Burrowing Owls are in northern Utah during the breeding season but they are worth it
Mid-morning I found a perched intermediate morph Swainson's Hawk in Box Elder County and was delighted when it didn't fly off immediately.
Even though I am saying a fond farewell to the Swainson's Hawks I'm also looking forward to Rough-legged Hawks gracing my life for another season.
When I found this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk on a lichen covered boulder in Idaho I took a little over 160 frames of it.
I photographed these two Red-tailed Hawks near old route 91 in Idaho which runs close to Interstate 15, part of the road is still paved and part of it is gravel.
I spent some time in the Centennial Valley of Montana yesterday and the best bird of the morning was this adult Prairie Falcon photographed on a cattle chute with a white cloud in the background.
I do love the look I was getting from the sub-adult Red-tailed Hawk just before it flew away to land on a perch on the other side of the railroad tracks
I've been meaning to post images of this sub-adult Swainson's Hawk in low light for about a year now and I am finally getting around to it.
At the time I created this image I didn't realize that when I took this portrait of the adult Red-tailed Hawk that I also photographed an ant. Can you see it?
Vultures and condors are scavengers and help to clean up the environment by consuming carrion, road kill and gut piles left from the kills of human and non-human hunters.
I got to find, point out, and photograph a rare Upland Sandpiper in Utah well out of its normal migration route and range, what a day. What a find
Last year on September 8th I located an immature Sharp-shinned Hawk in the Centennial Valley of Montana early in the morning as it flew low to the ground looking for small birds to capture and consume.
I miss these young Short-eared Owls but I hope they are doing well and will return next year to breed and have young of their own.
I haven't been seeing the Short-eared Owls lately and that is most likely because their young are now on their own and they don't need to hunt as much because now they only need to feed themselves.
Two days ago I was able to photograph an Eastern Kingbird hawking insects from a fence on my way out of Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge
So what better image to end my week of published posts with than a Swainson's Hawk pooping while perched on a fence post in northern Utah? I can't think of one.
I haven't posted a Burrowing Owl in a bit so I thought I would share this yawning juvenile Burrowing Owl that I photographed the beginning of July.
I was also delighted to photograph this juvenile Mountain Bluebird on the way to Gravelly Range early in the morning.
These are a few of the Beaverhead County Red-tailed Hawks that I have photographed while on this trip to Montana and Idaho.
I went looking for a mammal species yesterday and dipped on them but hit the jackpot by getting a lifer bird, a Northern Pygmy-Owl and it had prey!
The long-awaited Scrub-Jay split has officially happened! Western Scrub-Jay can be crossed out in a our fields guides and the two new names California Scrub-Jay and Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay can be penciled in.
When I took this image the juvenile Loggerhead Shrike was perched on a dead twig when the robber fly flew into the frame, the shrike took off after the fly and caught it in mid air.
Last month while looking for owls in northern Utah I found a mated pair of Mourning Doves resting side by side on a barbed wire fence.
This time of the year I see plenty of molting Red-tailed Hawks and they can look pretty tattered, worn and shabby.
At times the male Cassin's Finch looked like he was on alert but I can't be sure why, it might have been because of the other finches nearby or that he was keeping an eye out for predators in the sky.
I was trying to photograph flickers, wrens and sapsuckers in the Targhee National Forest of Idaho earlier this month when the American Robin in the photo above appeared and softly called.
Five evenings ago I was able to photograph a cooperative Vesper Sparrow in Montana's Centennial Valley.
The male Short-eared Owl in Clark County, Idaho was a beauty even in the poor light.
Mountain Bluebirds and this Centennial Valley Eastern Kingbird were the first two bird species I photographed on this trip to Montana and Idaho.
I liked this image of a Tree Swallow near Modoc Creek because of the eye contact, head turn, colors and the pattern of the conifer needles in the background.