Bring On The Snow!
Snow is supposed to start falling around 10 a.m. where I live in northern Utah. It might be the first significant snowfall of this winter down in the valley.
Snow is supposed to start falling around 10 a.m. where I live in northern Utah. It might be the first significant snowfall of this winter down in the valley.
I was tickled to be able to take a nice series of male Ring-necked Pheasant portraits yesterday morning in early morning light in Box Elder County, Utah.
I don't know if the Ring-necked Pheasants eat the midges but I know that many of the other birds at the refuge do so I like to think of midges as bird food on the wing.
Even though my primary focus was on photographing Bald Eagles I wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to take photos of the other birds I saw on the wing at Farmington Bay that morning.
A few weeks ago I observed and photographed an immature female Northern Harrier repeatedly harassing a Ring-necked Pheasant hen out on the marshes at Farmington Bay.
All of these male Ring-necked Pheasant portraits were taken yesterday morning at Farmington Bay WMA in the snow at 5°F.
After a long, hot summer I always look forward to the first day of autumn because it usually means cooler temperatures along with the scenery becoming more colorful as the leaves begin to turn.
Male Ring-necked Pheasants add a vivid splash of color against a field of white at Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area, I photographed this male a few days ago as it foraged in the snow.
Male Ring-necked Pheasants are a bold splash of rainbow colors against the white snow laying on the ground right now at Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area.
I wanted to share a sampler of bird images that I have taken over the past week in Davis and Box Elder Counties.
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.
Ring-necked Pheasant males are far more colorful than the females and in snow they seem even more vividly colored.
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.
Ring-necked Pheasants are colorful upland game birds that are native to Asia and were introduced into North America for recreational hunting purposes and now occur widespread across southern Canada and in many areas of the U.S. except for some of the southern states.
Photographing birds during Autumn is a wonderful time for me in Utah, the beautiful fall colors delight and enthrall me, the air gets nippy and I find myself feeling a surge of energy whenever I am outdoors.
Male Ring-necked Pheasants are very colorful and sport red face wattles, iridescent ear tufts, the white neck ring and bronze colored chest and back with barring. I remember my grandfather using the pheasant feathers for the flies that he tied.