Immature Great Blue Heron On Ice
Three days ago I photographed an immature Great Blue Heron on ice from the auto tour route at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.
Three days ago I photographed an immature Great Blue Heron on ice from the auto tour route at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.
What we can see are greenish, lobed feet and a dark, rounded body. With just those two identification features can you guess which bird these feet belong to?
It does not matter where I am or what I am doing, I am never not looking for birds.
Last week I found a small herd of does and fawns on a gravel road that leads to the foothills and mountain canyons of the Stansbury Mountains that hung around long enough to be photographed.
I was so excited that I was shaking because the creature I had found was a Desert Tarantula which was my first sighting of one in Utah.
I took this photo of a Ring-billed Gull walking through the snow in whiteout conditions on December 30, 2019 at a pond not far from where I live.
I haven't seen any Spotted Sandpiper chicks so far this breeding season but that doesn't mean they haven't hatched yet.
I had a spectacular morning yesterday high up in the Wasatch Mountains and among the highlights of the day was a herd of cow Elk moving down a hillside just before 9 o'clock.
What I like about this photo was the reflection of the Western Meadowlark, the still water, the one raised foot and the curvy edges of the puddle. I feel drawn into the frame.
I like gulls. I love to photograph gulls. I enjoy watching gulls in flight, on the ground, and fighting over food. I just do. I'm proud to be a gull enthusiast.
I had so much fun photographing Reddish Egrets when I lived in Florida and could see them nearly every time I went to Fort De Soto County Park's north beach.
The longer I looked at the high key photos I took of this Ring-billed Gull in the snow the more I have enjoyed viewing them.
Yesterday morning I spent time focusing on photographing Great Blue Herons on the frozen marshes of Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.
This post is about this pretty little Mallard hen walking in the fresh snow that fell during the night two days ago.
Two days ago I spotted a Wild Turkey tom crossing a dirt road high up in the Stansbury Mountains and to my delight there were several more males following behind him.
I couldn't have asked for a better birdy subject yesterday morning than this relaxed and cooperative immature Cooper's Hawk and I loved the setting it was in too.
I don't have many decent photos of immature Turkey Vultures so when I spotted several of them 11 days ago in northern Utah I was excited but my hopes for good light on the hatch year birds were dashed by clouds.
I spent a few moments watching and photographing a Least Chipmunk yesterday in the Wasatch Mountains and tried to savor every second I had with it.
I was able to get back out into the field yesterday and I had a marvelous time photographing young Spotted Sandpiper chicks and learning more about their behaviors near a creek in the Wasatch Mountains.
The road is nothing more than a sandy track that runs through a grassland area where in past years I have seen Long-billed Curlews displaying, fighting, courting and mating and I hoped to see that yesterday.
Before too long these small but handsome American Tree Sparrows will be winging their way north to their breeding grounds in the thickets and open tundra of northern Canada and Alaska.
At one of the burrows where I photographed Yellow-bellied Marmot pups in the spring there was one pup of the five that had a paler face than the other four had and I thought that was interesting.
I think that both male and female California Quail are striking birds with their head plumes, facial feather patterns, earth toned plumage and scaled underparts so whenever I see them I want to photograph them.
The first time I remember seeing Cattle Egrets I was a child who had just moved to interior Florida, I think I was in the second grade at the time or about 7 to 8 years old and these white birds that followed cattle around seemed so fascinating and exotic to me.
In October I spotted a Coyote walking in the shallow water of the Great Salt Lake from the causeway to Antelope Island in pre-dawn light where the water was reflecting the pink clouds of daybreak.
Yesterday an early morning session with a Coyote, the Great Salt Lake and some rocks made my day, I was so very happy to photograph the "Song Dog".
There are big differences in the ways I photograph Greater Yellowlegs here in Utah than there were when I photographed them in Florida.
Florida is about as far north as Limpkins are found in North America and they can be seen in freshwater marshes, ponds, lakeshores and swamps.
I spotted two of the other Red-tailed Hawk chicks that I have been following since early spring and was delighted that they have now fledged and have both learned to fly.
Normally I prefer natural perches for my subjects but I rather enjoyed photographing these Turkey Vultures and thinking of them as feathered gatekeepers.