Kamas Valley Killdeer
Last week, in the Kamas Valley in Summit County, Utah I was pleased to take Killdeer photos in a wet meadow with pink clovers and piles of cow manure.
Last week, in the Kamas Valley in Summit County, Utah I was pleased to take Killdeer photos in a wet meadow with pink clovers and piles of cow manure.
The first bird I photographed last week from the side of the road in the Kamas Valley was this scruffy Western Meadowlark with a grasshopper.
The most surprising and wonderful bird I saw and photographed on Thursday with my friend, April Olson, was a migrating Least Sandpiper in the Kamas Valley.
I was delighted to hear the Sandhill Cranes calling yesterday. Their bugling calls touch me and remind me that I am every bit a part of nature as the cranes are.
I haven't been seeing the Short-eared Owls lately and that is most likely because their young are now on their own and they don't need to hunt as much because now they only need to feed themselves.
This Short-eared Owl in flight over a wet meadow was just one of my favorite images taken yesterday in the Centennial Valley.
Another change that has officially occurred was that Sandhill Cranes were moved from the genus Grus to Antigone.
I really liked this frame of the female Short-eared Owl stretching on a leaning fence post because of the eye contact, the view of her talons, fanned out tail and extended wing.
I always think of Sandhill Cranes whenever my thoughts drift to the Centennial Valley of Montana where I always hear their calls, see them in the fields or in flight over the marshes.
This male Tree Swallow in flight image was taken two years ago at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in Montana and for some reason I had not processed it until now.
I don't always get what I want though; for example, I wanted this male Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus) I photographed at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Montana in good light.
Last year while I was camping and photographing at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge I saw a feeding frenzy that involved Franklin's and California Gulls in the flooded grasses and Sagebrush flats near the Lower Lake.