Subadult Green Heron In My Viewfinder
Yesterday morning, I had a marvelous time with a subadult Green Heron in my viewfinder at Dockery Slough on the Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge.
Yesterday morning, I had a marvelous time with a subadult Green Heron in my viewfinder at Dockery Slough on the Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge.
This morning, I'm sharing three Green Heron photos plus a short video that were taken at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma earlier this month.
This Bald Eagle photo isn't my best image of this species, and that is alright with me. I took the photo five days ago on the auto tour loop at Bear River MBR.
While looking for a photo to share this morning I found this immature Rough-legged Hawk on a No Swimming Sign with the snowy Wasatch Mountains in the background.
My subject today is about bird talk: American White Pelicans, my friend Adonis, and his recent first trip back East, and to the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
I was delighted to spot, point out, and photograph this immature light morph Rough-legged Hawk that was perched on a tumbleweed at Bear River MBR yesterday morning.
This is the same immature light morph Rough-legged Hawk that I shared portraits of two days ago that were taken at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.
Last week before I found the Rock Wren I wrote about I also found a subadult Peregrine Falcon perched on a wooden post in the West Desert.
Yesterday morning at Farmington Bay I found and photographed a second winter Black-crowned Night Heron at the edge of the frozen marsh.
It was a terrific "season opener" for me yesterday thanks to my keen observation skills at Farmington Bay WMA with a Green Heron, one-eared Long-tailed Weasel and a one-eyed American White Pelican.
These are the life stages of the Swainson's Hawks I see, observe and photograph here in Utah, Idaho and Montana.
I did find a sub-adult Bald Eagle resting on the ice on the last leg of the refuge loop and even though it was at a distance I wanted to photograph it because of the marshy habitat it was in.
On the first of February when I found and photographed an unusual and distinctive Bald Eagle with leucism I also photographed two more immature eagles in the same area.
Yesterday morning I spent some time up in the Wasatch Mountains and I am so glad that I did because I found a second winter Bald Eagle with leucism.
If I hadn't already been stopped to photograph the blackbird I wouldn't have seen this immature Bald Eagle flying towards me in time to take the photos that I took of it on the wing.
It isn't often that I am able to be close enough to a Northern Harrier to take a portrait of one, in fact I can only think of one time that I've been that fortunate and that was in May of 2016.
By this time of the year Swainson's Hawks have left Utah and headed towards South America to their wintering grounds but the memories I have of the hawks never leave me.
My big excitement yesterday morning was seeing my first, second and third of the year Rough-legged Hawks at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and the next thing was seeing all the changes that have happened at the refuge since my last visit.
All of the Swainson's I photographed the first day of May last year were adults except for what I believe was a sub-adult dark morph Swainson's Hawk and I thought that hawk was a real beauty.
A year ago today I was photographing lots of Red-tailed Hawks in Clark County, Idaho and using my Nikon D500 in the field for the first time.
There are so many Swainson's Hawks in northern Utah right now, I see them perched, on their nests, hovering over fields and soaring on the thermals after the sun warms up the air.
Yesterday morning in northern Utah I saw about a dozen Swainson's Hawks in about 2.25 miles, some were perched, some were in flight and all of them were wonderful to photograph.
Almost three years ago today I spent time photographing a Red-tailed Hawk at Farmington Bay that was hunting in a snowy field while using a nest box as a perch to watch for prey.
This photo shows the sub-adult Red-tailed Hawk in flight in the glow of the evening light just a split second after it had lifted off from a perch further away.
I photographed these two Red-tailed Hawks near old route 91 in Idaho which runs close to Interstate 15, part of the road is still paved and part of it is gravel.
I do love the look I was getting from the sub-adult Red-tailed Hawk just before it flew away to land on a perch on the other side of the railroad tracks
I've been meaning to post images of this sub-adult Swainson's Hawk in low light for about a year now and I am finally getting around to it.
These are a few of the Beaverhead County Red-tailed Hawks that I have photographed while on this trip to Montana and Idaho.
This time of the year I see plenty of molting Red-tailed Hawks and they can look pretty tattered, worn and shabby.
I was able to take quite a few images of a very cooperative first spring Northern Harrier that was perched on an old post next to the road in Box Elder County.