Fata Morgana or Superior Mirage? Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/2500, ISO 1000, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
I place a lot of confidence in my visual acuity and I am constantly scanning for birds, large and small, near and far when I am out in the field and once in a while I see the oddest things. Last week on a trip up to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge on 29 August I was scanning the dried up marshes for birds from the west side of the auto tour route while looking towards the southeast and happened to spot a long, dark, odd looking mirage.
I struggled for a second because my brain knew that what I was seeing shouldn’t be there but I believed my eyes.
I think I was looking towards where Willard Bay is located and I know I could see the Wasatch Mountain Range in the distance but that dark area over the marsh that looks like Spanish moss draped over a invisible line touching the horizon? It shouldn’t be there, it isn’t physically there but yet, it was.
Mirage seen from Bear River MBR – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/2500, ISO 1000, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
The mirage might be a superior mirage or a fata morgana mirage, I really don’t know for sure but I do know that it was fascinating to see and photograph. The mirage stretched for miles and appeared to fade into nothingness at both ends.
It was hazy that morning with some clouds overhead, I’d seen a low of 53°F but don’t know what the temp was when I took these images.
Whatever this mirage was, it got my attention and I felt I had to stop and take photos of this naturally occurring optical phenomena, I mean I don’t see things like this everyday!
Isn’t nature astonishing?
Life is good.
Mia
Fascinating shot and very interesting info. Thanks Mia.
Very interesting images. Yes, it’s called Fata Morgana and gave us a Chinese city in the sky image a few years ago.
See a simple explanation at this link: https://sciencemadefun.net/blog/smoke-mirrors-day-2/
Further reading makes me conclude that the China video of the city in the clouds was a fake. And the explanation at the sciencemadefun blog was correct about the different temperature of layers of air affecting refraction (bending light) but not the part about these layers of air affecting the speed of light.
Utahbooklover, thanks for stating your conclusion about the China video. I wonder if the mirage I photographed is the shoreline of Willard Bay… I don’t know what the reflection was but it was sure interesting and odd.
???
Amazing.
Wow! That is very interesting! I like that you got a picture of something that isn’t really there, too! Thanks for sharing
That is amazing! I never thought you could take a photo of something that isn’t there. I am glad you did.
Very cool images, Mia!
What a neat find!
Mia, I just clicked on to your pictures of the Mirage. This is wonderful. We have a Mirage hill that is between Greybull, Wy and Cody, Wy. That is the only one I have ever seen. I did try to take some pictures of it a few years ago. Those things are sure strange.
Cool! Some distant forest projected onto the air? So uniform. We don’t get many such mirage phenomena back east. The occasional green flash at sunset, oddly accurate reflections in water, and shimmering pavement on long rare straight stretches of interstate highways, nothing is very straight or flat for very long around here.
Wow!!! I’ve seen mirages but nothing like that. Thanks for posting this.
Very interesting, I wonder how many settlers got lost or died chasing mirages when people first settled this country?
Many thanks for sharing!