Ferocious Ferruginous
I think all raptors have a ferocious appearance but this Ferruginous Hawk definitely looked ferocious to me yesterday right after it lifted off from its perch high on a pole.
I think all raptors have a ferocious appearance but this Ferruginous Hawk definitely looked ferocious to me yesterday right after it lifted off from its perch high on a pole.
This Great Blue Heron landed briefly on a willow that was along the road at Farmington Bay but before I could get my exposure set correctly it took flight.
The amazing birds and animals keep me going back to Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge but the scenery and wildness of the area does too.
I love the stare of raptors because they always appear so serious, intense and they have a no-nonsense look to their eyes like this Red-tailed Hawk has.
It is raining here in the valley this morning and snow is falling in the high country in the middle of June so I am sitting here dreaming of Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge.
It's Monday and I didn't have any idea what to post this morning so I opted to present this image of two Brown Pelicans flying double-decker style over the Gulf of Mexico.
A simple but fishy post today of an Osprey that flew over my head at Fort De Soto County Park taken 5 years ago in Florida.
I photographed this Osprey at Lettuce Lake Regional Park from the observation tower, the Osprey had tried to catch a fish but came up with just the filamentous algae in its talons.
Last month while camping near Capitol Reef National Park I was delighted to find a Peregrine Falcon feeding on prey near some Sandhill Cranes in a field that I had been photographing.
It is really cruddy here in Utah this morning so I thought I would go back in time to a warmer, sunnier day via the magic of some Black Skimmer images I created five years ago today.
Soon Caspian Terns will be back in Utah flying over rivers, ponds, lakes and other freshwater impoundments searching for prey.
I am keeping it simple this morning with a lone Sandhill Crane in flight over Wayne County that I photographed about two weeks ago while in southern Utah.
American Kestrels are fascinating falcons, they are tiny, colorful and at times quite pugnacious.
These Great Blue Heron photos were taken of the same bird, photographed at same location on the same day just one minute apart.
I am back from wandering, camping and photographing in several counties in southern Utah where I was delighted to find some Sandhill Cranes to photograph in Wayne County, Utah.
Laughing Gulls are commonly seen at Fort De Soto County Park but novices to birding and bird watching might think they are three different kinds of gulls depending on their age and plumage.
The Centennial Valley says "home" to me with the expansive views it offers of not only the valley but the Centennial Mountains and the Lower Lake and beyond. I find peace there.
Just a simple Red-tailed Hawk in flight image that I took early last week in Cedar Valley on a bright, clear day.
This Osprey flying in from the Gulf over the north beach of Fort De Soto came as a surprise to us so I had little time to prepare and get my setting right due to how fast the Osprey was flying.
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.
One of the birds I photographed yesterday was this handsome Red-tailed Hawk that I spotted in a tree at Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area.
This Red-shouldered Hawk photo was taken in Florida in November of 2008 just after the hawk lifted off from an old snag near a Great Blue Heron I had been photographing.
I have had so many opportunities with Golden Eagles and each time something goes wrong.
Rough-legged Hawks are among my favorites of the raptors that over winter in the Salt Lake Valley of Utah because I only see them at this time of the year while they wait to head back to the subarctic and Arctic to breed.
Eye color can be used to sex juvenile Northern Harriers, brown for juvenile females and yellowish for the males and this harrier is a definite brown-eyed beauty.
I have mentioned in recent posts that winter can be harsh in the Salt Lake Valley in posts with images I had taken at Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area so I wanted to share these two images taken there yesterday.
Some of my images make me laugh and this Osprey image with a Flounder that weighs almost as much as the bird does make me laugh.
I photographed these Black Skimmers in flight at the north beach of Fort De Soto County Park in Florida one cool January morning.
After posting an image of a American White Pelican lifting off two days ago I thought I should post an photo of a Brown Pelican today for comparison.
One December morning in 2008 I was sitting in the sand at Fort De Soto County Park's north beach in Florida when a Great Blue Heron came up and perched on a driftwood stump that had washed up onto the shore.