These bright Northern Yellow Warblers are getting ready for their long, fall migrations and while I am happy to see that they seem to have had a successful breeding season it also felt a touch bittersweet to me.
Four years ago today stopping for a Golden Eagle perched on a power pole in Box Elder County would net me a rare Upland Sandpiper sighting because of the sandpiper's chattering call.
I took forty-eight photos of this flycatcher three days ago as it watched for flying insects from its perch and I realized that these might be the last Willow Flycatcher photos that I take this year.
Two days ago near a creek in the Wasatch Mountains I took the funniest Northern Yellow Warbler photo I have ever taken in all the years that I have been photographing birds.
The surprise for me was that the Western Warbling-Vireo decided to perch out in the open with a fairly clean background and that it stayed there for almost a minute.
On August 10th I drove into the mountains for a quiet, relaxing morning and came away with quite a few bird photos I have yet to process.
I was "over the moon" excited when I spotted an adult male Nashville Warbler out in the open at the top of a willow yesterday while up in the Wasatch Mountains.
A while back I came across some butterfly photos that I had taken on July 19, 2015 that I hadn't processed or identified so recently I went about finding out what species of butterfly I had photographed.
About two weeks ago I photographed a molting Northern House Wren high in the Wasatch Mountains as it perched near a willow thicket.
Throughout my life I have liked to think that every sunset has a promise and a gift from Nature in it. The promise that the sun will rise again in the morning.
A few weeks ago while up in the Wasatch Mountains I was able to see and photograph an immature male Downy Woodpecker as it foraged for food in willows and while clinging to a Common Mullein.
When I photographed this Common Sunflower I noticed the Great Basin Bumble Bee right away then I saw the other bee and what appears to be two midges on the upper left quadrant of the flower petals.
When this Barn Swallow came in to land it struggled a bit with the wind which is why its wings were raised to regain its balance in this image.
I only had two minutes with these immature Eastern Kingbirds and I felt I had to make every second I had with them in my viewfinder count. I succeeded.
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.
This is probably far more information on "He? She? It?" than anyone wanted to see this morning but after photographing the adult and immature Green-tailed Towhees yesterday I thought this was a great time to do this post.
I may have seen and heard my last Uinta Ground Squirrel of the year last week while up in the Wasatch Mountains looking for birds to photograph.
On four out of five trips up into the Wasatch Mountains this week I've been able to take images of immature and female Western Tanagers
Stopping to eat my muffins at this location was a great idea because this week on three trips to this spot I've photographed more than just Cedar Waxwings at this location.
This Song Sparrow will replace its damaged feathers quickly and will look like it normally does once again. Until then, I still think it is a beautiful, albeit somewhat ruffled, bird.
The bird activity picked up just after the sun rose over the mountains peaks and as I scanned the area for birds I spotted this Pine Siskin almost directly in front of me clinging to a small branch.
I saw and heard Black-capped and Mountain Chickadees yesterday morning but only this Black-capped Chickadee came in close enough for me to photograph.
I was excited when I found this young Cedar Waxwing out in the open and within the range of my lens right after it caught a crane fly to eat for breakfast.
Several Northern Yellow Warblers flew into the serviceberry and in this photo I can see that this female has been feeding on the ripe berries because her lower mandible has a juicy residue on it.
Birds aren't the only creatures feasting on the ripe serviceberries in the Wasatch Mountains right now, Least Chipmunks are also gorging on the juicy berries too.
I've felt varying degrees of disappointment when comparing "what should have been" with the way we have had to adjust to life and living during a global pandemic as I am sure many of us have this year.
The Cedar Waxwing didn't appear to be on the shrub to eat the serviceberries because all it did was call and look around. Perhaps its young were also in the area.
One of the birds I had in my viewfinder for a few moments yesterday morning was an immature MacGillivray's Warbler where it perched on the branches of a serviceberry at the edge of a dusty, gravel road.
Yesterday I did take some bird photos and although I didn't find any avian rarities I did find a beautiful young Red Fox in a mountain meadow to photograph.
Just viewing this winter photo of the refuge made me feel refreshed and cooler. I also realized it might be hot now but cooler weather will be here before long.