By Mia McPherson, on May 16th, 2012% This is another image that reminds me of the day I photographed it and the great memories of that photo session. Ron and I sat with this Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) for several minutes on the auto tour loop of Bear River National Wildlife Refuge in Box Elder County, Utah.
My Nikon D300 is giving me the fits, I’ve had it checked out locally and they can’t replicate the issues I am having of the exposure going wonky intermittently, my shutter speed will go from 1/1000 or higher and then drop to 1/4 to 1/60 resulting in pure snowy white images. Yuck. At any rate right now I am using my backup D200′s until I can get the D300 sent to Nikon.
 Black-crowned Night Heron lift off - Nikon D200, f6.3, 1/2000, ISO 500, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 350mm, natural light The day didn’t start off looking great, it looked like it might be cloudy but the light stayed over the refuge while to the south it didn’t look great. There were birds, birds and more birds on the auto tour loop and we were able to catch some wonderful action.
This heron was standing on a little spit of dry land at the edge of a marshy pond, for a bit it just stood there, then it preened a while. Before too long Ron and I could see the bird was going to lift off and fly away. We were ready!
I took a nice series of images as the Black-crowned lifted off and flew past us, I really liked the position of the wings, the look at the intensely red eye and those big, dangling yellow feet in this frame.
After leaving the refuge we stopped at the Maddox Drive In for great Hamburgers and fries.
Birthday Boy Ron appeared to have an awesome day but why wouldn’t we? Great light. Plenty of birds. Super company. I was a happy camper!
Mia
*I pre-scheduled this post because I am away, please feel free to share this with your friends & family!
More Black-crowned Night Heron images
By Mia McPherson, on April 28th, 2012%  Black-necked Stilt male - Nikon D300, f6.3, 1/2500, ISO 640, Nikkor 200-400mm with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light Black-necked Stilts (Himantopus mexicanus) have returned from their wintering grounds to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and other locations in Utah. Black-necked Stilts are black and white shorebirds with long pink to reddish legs, thin black bills and lovely red eyes.
I photographed this male Stilt as he fed in front of me on April 16th in a marshy area on the auto tour route. Note the glossy black back with a slight iridescence.
 Black-necked Stilt female - Nikon D300, f6.3, 1/2500, ISO 640, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 314mm, natural light Female Black-necked Stilts have browner backs than the males as shown in the image above.
Black-necked Stilts can live up to 19 years, their diet consists of small fish, frogs, clams, worms, flies, shrimp, tadpoles and snails. They breed around marshes, shallow ponds, lakes and manmade water areas. Black-necked Stilts are social birds and they are often seen in flocks of 25 or more.
Currently their status us secure but increased use of pesticides and loss of wetlands could cause this species to decline.
Mia
By Mia McPherson, on April 21st, 2012% During the winter months I miss seeing large flocks of American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) soaring in the thermals, in the past few weeks I have been delighted to see them again.
 American White Pelicans soaring on a thermal over the Great Salt Lake - Nikon D300, f7.1, 1/1250, ISO 640, +1.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 200mm, natural light It is hard to explain to a person who has never seen American White Pelicans circling on the thermals how amazing it is to see a large flock seemingly disappear from the sky and then a split second later see them reappear. It is just a matter of their body angle at certain times that makes them nearly invisible as they turn but it sure feels magical to me.
I photographed the pelicans above soaring on a thermal over the Great Salt Lake from Antelope Island State Park last week. There were three separate flocks soaring at first but all of them joined together as I watched and photographed them. American White Pelicans are known to soar to high elevations when soaring in the thermals, they can become invisible to the naked eye and to a person using 10x binoculars.
 American White Pelicans lifting off - Nikon D300, f6.3, 1/2000, ISO 500, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light Early this week I spent some time camping at Locomotive Springs, a very desolate, arid and uninhabited area north of the Great Salt Lake and many miles west of I-15. The area is managed by the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) that is only accessible by gravel roads. I photographed these pelicans as they lifted off from one of the springs near the campsite. While the springs are natural they have been altered (improved?) by the BLM and fish are stocked in some of them.
 Fluffed up American White Pelican - Nikon D300, f6.3, 1/2500, ISO 640, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light There is a large breeding colony of American White Pelicans on Gunnison Island in the Great Salt Lake, approximately 10 to 20% of the entire population of American White Pelicans breed in that area.
Because the Great Salt Lake is too saline for fish to live in the pelicans fly from Gunnison Island to locations such as Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge (aka Bear River National Wildlife Refuge) about 30 miles to the east to find food. The freshwater areas there do contain fish and large numbers of American White Pelicans can be found there.
*Access to Gunnison Island is restricted to protect the nesting birds.
The pelican in the image above has not yet gone into breeding plumage, it does not have the “horn” or “carbuncle” on the bill typically seen in breeding American White Pelicans. I photographed this pelican from the auto tour route this past Monday at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.
 Adult American White Pelican - Nikon D300, f6.3, 1/3200, ISO 640, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light This adult American White Pelican; also photographed this past Monday at the refuge, is in breeding plumage as indicated by the “horn” or “carbuncle” on the bill and the solid white head.
During the summer American White Pelicans are commonly found at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, often they can be seen in large numbers feeding in the impoundments, along the marshes and while along the road to the refuge on the Bear River.
I’m glad that the American White Pelicans are back in Utah. Seeing them always delights me.
Mia
More American White Pelican images
By Mia McPherson, on April 20th, 2012%  Yellow-headed Blackbird male about to grab a midge from the air - Nikon D300, f6.3, 1/2000, ISO 640, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light This image was taken this past Monday at Bear River National Wildlife Refuge in northern Utah. The Midges have hatched and are flying around near the auto tour route. I’ve written about the importance of Midges before in a post titled Midges and Birds – Food for Thought .
Yellow-headed Blackbirds (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) can perch on cattails, reeds, rushes or mounds of vegetation and snatch Midges right out of the air. Capturing it with my camera was a treat on Monday, that is a midge to the right of the blackbird’s bill.
Mia
More Yellow-headed Blackbird image
By Mia McPherson, on April 10th, 2012% It won’t be long before the high, scratchy kweea kweea calls of Clark’s Grebes (Aechmophorus clarkii) are heard in Utah’s Bear River National Wildlife Refuge if they haven’t already arrived. I haven’t been to Bear River NWR in a while. (I checked on the Bear River NWR site and at least 18 Western Grebes and 16 Clark’s Grebes have been seen there recently)
 - Clark’s Grebe at Bear River National Wildlife Refuge – Nikon D200, f6.3, 1/1250, ISO 250, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light
I think that Clark’s Grebes are striking birds with their long graceful necks, black crowns, sharp bright yellow to orange-yellow bills, lovely white, gray and black plumage and those brilliant cherry-red eyes. Clark’s Grebes nest at Bear River NWR, they build floating nests with emergent vegetation. The young are able to swim not long after hatching and like other grebe young they do ride on the adult’s backs.
Clark’s Grebes are rarely seen in flight because they dive and swim to get away from predators and they only migrate at night. I’d still love to see one in flight and capture their mating display called “rushing”.
Mia
More Clark’s Grebe images
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Photographing a Tricolored Heron from a tidal lagoon
Focusing on Wildlife Contributor
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