California Gull Playing With A Stick
This morning I'm sharing two photos of a California Gull playing with a stick at one of my local ponds that I took during the winter in January of 2021.
This morning I'm sharing two photos of a California Gull playing with a stick at one of my local ponds that I took during the winter in January of 2021.
I liked these Snowy Egret photos because of the contrast of the bird's stark white plumage against the deep blue of the sky reflected on the water.
While Franklin's Gulls are in northern Utah for their breeding season brine flies are an important food source for the adults and their young and are a part of their breeding success here in the Great Basin.
I'm concerned for our wild American Mink and have begun to wonder of the coronavirus could be passed to the other native mustelids here in Utah.
Some winters here in the Salt Lake Valley I see quite a lot Common Mergansers while in other years I only see a few. I'm hoping that this winter I will see plenty of these beautiful, sleek diving ducks.
Among the duck species I look for during the winter are American Wigeons which are medium sized dabbling ducks.
Today's post is about an American Oystercatcher image taken in 2009 at Egmont Key in Pinellas County, Florida and the story behind it.
This morning I opted to go back in time to a "normal" Mother's Day by pulling a Black-bellied Plover photo from my archives that was taken on Mother's Day in 2009.
After reviewing the images I took of the gull at home on a larger screen I was happy to see that it was a Herring Gull, gulls we only see in the winter here.
I live in such a beautiful state and even though birds are my primary focus as subjects the natural world that surrounds me is endlessly fascinating, stunning and I hope I never lose the sense of wonder I feel when I see it.
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.
At first the Common Raven was near the side of the road but it moved down the rocks and got closer to the lake and where it poked around in the rocks.
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.
There are big differences in the ways I photograph Greater Yellowlegs here in Utah than there were when I photographed them in Florida.
When I photographed this trio of Great Yellowlegs in Florida I didn't have to worry about how far away they were, in fact at times they moved too close to me
Rough-legged Hawks are known for kiting or hovering nearly motionless in the air while turning their head side to side to look for prey on the ground below them.
About half the world's shorebird populations are in decline and with climate change and rising sea levels habitat loss is happening at a faster rate than ever before.
If this pooping Coyote could talk I wonder what she would say? Please feel free to add a caption in the comments!
Any day that I see a Coyote is a great one, seeing a pair of them it is even greater and yesterday I photographed a pair of coyotes I am very familiar with.
I have already seen Sage Thrasher chicks on Antelope Island State Park and I suspect it won't be long before I see juvenile Western Meadowlarks learning how to fly and feed on their own.
The first bird I photographed on my recent trip to Idaho and Montana was a White-faced Ibis in full breeding plumage.
I get excited when spring arrives in Utah and the shorebirds return because they were my spark birds, they are what got me into bird photography
It has been five and a half years since I photographed American Oystercatchers at Fort De Soto County Park in Florida and oddly enough I still dream about these shorebirds.
One May morning in 2009 I was able to photograph both the dark and white morph Reddish Egret in breeding plumage just minutes and yards apart at Fort De Soto's north beach.
Even when the light is cruddy I can't resist taking images of Coyotes no matter where I spot them.
Tricolored Herons are smaller than Great Blue Herons and larger than Snowy Egrets and all three of these wading birds hunt in many of the same locations along the Gulf Coast.
American Oystercatchers are specialized in that their diet consists of bivalves and they do use that flashy orange bill to pry some of them open.
There is just something about this Coyote image that makes me feel happy.
As a bird photographer I feel it is very important to me that my images show my subjects and the settings they are in as accurately as possible.
In the fall of 2011 I enjoyed being able to photograph this first year Prairie Falcon several times close to the Great Salt Lake in Utah.