December Snow Storm Plus An American Coot
Yesterday, after I cleared the snow off of my Jeep for the first time, I drove down to my neighborhood pond in a December snow storm to enjoy the snow.
Dark-eyed Juncos And Seasonal Changes
One of the seasonal changes I look for in autumn is when I see that the Dark-eyed Juncos have arrived in the Salt Lake Valley.
Preening Ring-billed Gull in a Snow Storm
I photographed this preening Ring-billed Gull in a snow storm in January of this year at a pond near where I live and it was pretty chilly that day.
Late Migrating American Avocets in Utah
Most of the American Avocets have migrated away from northern Utah but most years we can have a few stragglers that haven't migrated by this time of the year
Snow Birds – Rough-legged Hawks
But for me the "Snow Birds" I have grown to love here in Utah are Rough-legged Hawks who only visit in the winter and spend the rest of their lives breeding in high subarctic and Arctic regions.
It snowed in the Salt Lake Valley yesterday…
And it won't be long before I am photographing wildlife in drifts of snow and birds on perches covered in white.
Appearing Soon – Rough-legged Hawks
Last winter was awesome for seeing Rough-legged Hawks and I am hoping they had another great breeding season and that they will show up here in large numbers to over winter.
Merlin Perched In A Tree ~ Friday Photos
Merlins are winter visitors in the Salt Lake Valley so I have just a few more weeks to attempt photographing them. Merlins are used to be called "pigeon hawks" because their shape and flight patterns are similar to pigeons.
The Bald Eagles are Returning to the Valley
During the summer months I don't often see Bald Eagles unless I go up into the high country or travel north of Utah to Idaho, Wyoming or Montana but in the Salt Lake Valley many Bald Eagles come in to spend the winter.
It has only been 4 days? Really?
For days it has been raining (sometimes hailing), cloudy and a miserable gray here in the Salt Lake Valley though it seems like two weeks to this bird photographer.
California Gulls – The 1848 Heroes of Utah’s Pioneers
Huge flocks of California Gulls allegedly descended onto the grasshoppers in the valley and made tasty meals of the insects thus preventing the total loss of the crops as the story is told.