Winter Great Blue Heron On Ice
This may have been my last chance this winter to photograph a Great Blue Heron on ice so I am glad I took photos of it as it landed and cautiously walked around on the ice.
This may have been my last chance this winter to photograph a Great Blue Heron on ice so I am glad I took photos of it as it landed and cautiously walked around on the ice.
While looking through my photos from two years ago today I came across images of this Ring-billed Gull coming in for a landing and thought the gull looked perfect against the blue of the water.
Every winter since I moved to northern Utah in 2009 I have found a few Double-crested Cormorants overwintering at my local ponds but this winter has been very different.
I found it interesting to see a first winter drake Common Goldeneye swimming with a first winter Common Merganser and decided to photograph them.
The Pied-billed Grebe dunked its head then slapped its wings against the water vigorously which caused the icy water to fly in all directions.
I thought I was going to go home without any frame filling bird photos until this European Starling flew in and landed next to the water.
Yesterday I watched and photographed the Redhead drakes exhibiting Kinked-neck and Head-throw displays but once again they were too far away to get the high quality images I am seeking.
Yesterday afternoon I was thrilled to be able to photograph two adult drake Common Goldeneyes in a territorial dispute on a pond as they moved across my field of view.
The Canada Goose was unusual because it had spotted, white plumage on its head and I was able to take photos of both left and right profile views of its head.
In December I had eight minutes and twenty-four seconds to photograph this Hooded Merganser drake and every time I have gone to the local pond after that I have looked for him to be there again.
The light was low, big flakes of snow were falling and the ice was covered in fluffy snow so that allowed me to take photos of a few birds that looked like they were posed on a blank, white canvas.
Usually by this time in December I've seen at least one Snow Goose to photograph but so far this year I haven't found one yet.
It has been three years and one day since I took photos of a California Gull that had eyes that looked like snowflake obsidian.
When the American Coots come close to me I am also able to take portraits of them that show their red eyes and their ivory colored bills with their reddish-brown frontal shields.
Why were the mallards sticking close to this Redhead? That was because she was diving down into the pond and bringing up aquatic vegetation to feed on and the mallards were stealing bits of it from her.
Yesterday started off dreary but later in the afternoon I was able to get out in the field and I had a blast taking photos of a spiffy drake Hooded Merganser for a little while.
Birds that we might think are too delicate to survive the freezing temps, howling winds and driving snow can and do surprise us with their strength and tenacity.
Sometimes I wonder how birds get their names, especially the birds with "Common" in their names such as Common Mergansers.
This was my favorite image of the morning. Just a fluffy mallard feather and the silky reflections on the pond.
I especially enjoy watching American Coots in winter when they try to use their large greenish feet to walk on ice because that can be rather comical and I love to laugh.
When I was at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge a few days ago I saw lots of ducks in the marshes and on the water and I realized that I am looking forward to photographing winter ducks again.
Even when I don't have any birds to view or photograph I am always looking for other subjects and yesterday my "other" subject was a turtle sunning itself on a log at one of my local ponds.
Yesterday morning I was able to take close up images of a male Brewer's Blackbird in the kind of light that showed all of its beautiful iridescent colors with the silky blue water of a pond in the background.
Yesterday I photographed a muskrat I found eating green filamentous algae at Farmington Bay WMA which I thought was interesting because I had never seen one eating algae before.
These nine Snowy Egret photos are just a fraction of the images I took of a small flock of these snowy, white birds with golden slippers yesterday morning on the marshes of Farmington Bay WMA.
I had fun testing my skills by photographing several immature Forster's Terns that were hunting for and catching prey at Farmington Bay WMA two days ago.
Ah, Mia, it is just a bird. No, it isn't just a bird. Because California Gulls aren't the only birds at risk of disappearing from the skies, shorelines and waters of Utah.
The Great Blue Heron had flown in and landed near the shoreline on the other side of the pond where the bank was covered with snow and the heron rested there for a bit.
On one of the brighter afternoons I spent just 15 minutes at the local pond and came away with lots of photos of winter California Gulls bathing, flying and landing and among those I liked this image the most.
Two days ago on my immature Double-crested Cormorant post I mentioned that prior to photographing the cormorant that I had been taking images of a Great Blue Heron, these two photos are of that heron.