water levels

Loggerhead Shrike On A Wild Rose In Front of The Dying Great Salt Lake

By Mia McPherson|November 16th, 2021|Categories: Birds, Box Elder County, Loggerhead Shrikes, Utah|Tags: adult, autumn, climate change, climate crisis, desert, dry lake bed, dying, fall, Great Salt Lake, Lanius ludovicianus, Loggerhead Shrike, mud flats, perched, playa, Rosa woodsii, rose, shore, shrike, shrikes, water consumption, water levels, wild rose, Woods' Rose|

Had I taken these Loggerhead Shrike photos four to five years ago the background wouldn't have been dry lake bed. It would have shown water. Precious, life-giving water.

Franklin’s Gull Feasting On Brine Flies Plus News About The Great Salt Lake

By Mia McPherson|July 25th, 2021|Categories: Antelope Island State Park, Birds, Davis County, Franklin's Gulls, Utah|Tags: adult, brine flies, chasing, conservation, drying, dying, eating, Ephydra cinerea, Ephydra hians, feasting, flies, foraging, Franklin's Gull, Great Salt Lake, gull, gulls, hatch year, hypersaline, hypersaline lake, immature, juvenile, lake, Leucophaeus pipixcan, rocks, scooping, shore, shoreline, summer, walking, water, water levels, young|

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.