I enjoy these tail-bobbing American Pipits every bit as much today as I did the morning I first saw them near Goose Egg Island at Farmington Bay but since I moved to Utah I can see and photograph them more often.
Personally I am fascinated by European Starling murmurations, their interesting, beautiful plumage and how they can mimic the calls and songs of other birds.
Some days one good bird is all I get and if I hadn't spotted this cooperative Mockingbird on a Fragrant Sumac in northern Utah yesterday I would have been mostly skunked.
My big excitement yesterday morning was seeing my first, second and third of the year Rough-legged Hawks at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and the next thing was seeing all the changes that have happened at the refuge since my last visit.
American Pipits aren't flashy birds, in fact some people might think they are rather plain or dull colored. I am always happy to have them in my viewfinder and to hear their flight calls in the breeze.
The Sage Thrasher seemed like it was bathed in golden light when suddenly I saw that it had a sumac berry which it tossed it into the air and proceeded to swallow it whole.
The birds I photographed on the wild rose bushes were adult and immature Sage Thrashers, an adult White-crowned Sparrow and one beautiful Northern Mockingbird.
It was a lot of fun photographing adult Gray Catbirds earlier this year and photographing the juveniles learning to be on their own has been equally fun and entertaining.
In the past week I have photographed so many birds in a Wasatch Mountain canyon that I thought I would share a group of them in a photo gallery.
I have truly been enjoying being able to photograph Gray Catbirds this spring and summer because they are challenging to get out in the open, because I think they are dashing in appearance and their songs always delight me.
I'm going to keep trying to obtain better photos of the Gray Catbirds with the Black Twinberry berries and perhaps before long the catbirds will bring their young to feast on these berries too!
Gray Catbirds aren't flashy and except for the spot of cinnamon colored feathers under their tails they are mostly an overall gray with a black cap. While their appearance isn't dazzling the variety of songs they sing certainly can be.
I enjoyed my time yesterday morning photographing the Gray Catbird and the Hound's Tongue in bloom but I really wish I had been as happy with my catbird photos as I am the wildflower images.
Okay, that is enough for now, there are more birds that people love to hate but I can only deal with so much of it before I feel the need to get out and photograph all the birds I see, even those that other people despise.
I can barely wait to see my first Sage Thrasher of the year warming up on a rock in front of the Great Salt Lake, scurrying along on the ground, perched on top of sage or rabbitbrush singing or displaying.
Earlier this week while photographing birds at Farmington Bay WMA I was able to take images of a one second scuffle between two American Pipits.
I have an alternate title for this post which is "Invasive European Starlings perched on invasive Russian Olives" because both the birds in this post and the trees are not native but introduced.
American Pipits aren't flashy birds, their coloring might even be called drab by some people, but I have a great time photographing them whenever I can.
I spotted my first of the season Merlin yesterday morning out on the flats at Farmington Bay yesterday morning and it truly delighted me.
I've been hearing American Pipits on the wing for a while now and yesterday I was happy to photograph several pipits while they perched on some rocks in northern Utah.
I was delighted to be able to photograph a Gray Catbird in a willow thicket yesterday up in a canyon in the Wasatch Mountains.
Gray Catbirds are related to mockingbirds and thrashers and are in the family Mimidae and all of them are noted for their vocalizations and their ability to mimic a wide variety of bird songs and calls and human made sounds.
I was so happy to photograph this mixture of spring birds at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge that I had a hard time picking out which birds and which photos to share.
Wow, today is the last day of the year 2016. This is my photographic year in review from Utah, Idaho and Montana!
I am so glad the American Bison were saved from extinction and that I see the Antelope Island State Park herd as often as I do.
American Pipits are migrating through Utah in large numbers right now and yesterday morning at Farmington Bay they seemed to be everywhere!
American Pipits will soon be migrating through the Salt Lake Valley and I will hear their flight calls along the causeway to Antelope Island and the fields at Farmington Bay WMA.
Yesterday I had an immature Sage Thrasher get so close to me that I was able to take portraits of it as it perched out in the open.
I came across this image yesterday that I took one day shy of a year ago while looking for another image in my files and thought that I would post it today because I like the wing position.
This Sage Thrasher and Lark Sparrow on rabbitbrush are only two of the birds that benefit from the rabbitbrush on Antelope Island.