Birds that I find in the field, photograph and share the stories behind the images.
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.
While walking the boardwalk at the small rookery I was able to get close to this Great Egret that was resting under the canopy of a large tree and took this portrait of it.
Two days ago I was able to photograph an Eastern Kingbird hawking insects from a fence on my way out of Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge
I was able to take several images of this hungry Western Grebe chick begging to be fed and laughed out loud when I saw this funny face through my view finder.
The sound you hear in the video is just one Western Grebe chick begging to be fed and it was loud even over the wind!
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.
One a fall day at Fort De Soto I was able to photograph this Black-bellied Plover on a foggy morning up close on the beach.
I had a great deal of fun photographing the pelicans, herons, egrets and geese in flight in the rapidly changing light yesterday morning at Bear River MBR.
This sleeping Willet image remains one of my favorite images because it was so comfortable in my presence that it fell asleep.
So what better image to end my week of published posts with than a Swainson's Hawk pooping while perched on a fence post in northern Utah? I can't think of one.
This Clark's Grebe portrait shows the brilliant red eye, the smoothness of the sharp bill and tiny water droplets in the downy plumage of the grebe's face, crown and neck.
The Black-necked Stilt adults seem to be still keeping an eye on their young and that is what this male Black-necked Stilt was doing near the auto tour loop.
Yesterday morning I spent fifteen minutes with sibling Burrowing Owl juveniles in northern Utah not long after the sun came up and while there was still golden light.
The American Avocets look a bit different now than they did earlier in the year because they are now in their paler, less colorful nonbreeding plumage.
I haven't posted a Burrowing Owl in a bit so I thought I would share this yawning juvenile Burrowing Owl that I photographed the beginning of July.
Two days ago while on the auto tour loop at Bear River MBR an American White Pelican caught my eyes because of its unusually dark crown, nape, and neck plumage.
The bird I was looking at wasn't a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron at all, it was an adult American Bittern out in the open!
I liked the crouched position of this Snowy Egret as it was about to strike the prey it was hunting and when it struck it did capture and eat the small fish.
I saw plenty of birds yesterday including juvenile Black-crowned Night Herons at Bear River MBR every where I looked.
Temps were probably in the teens when I photographed this juvenile harrier in January of 2010 at Farmington Bay. Ahhh.
I thought the invisible fence made this roadside Swainson's Hawk in rural Montana an interesting subject to share.
Killdeer chicks are precocial and active soon after hatching and will leave the nest as soon as their down dries.
I know that this hidden Short-eared Owl fledgling image isn't one of my best because of the grasses in front of its face and the shadow of a stem falling on its left eye but I love it.
This Short-eared Owl in flight over a wet meadow was just one of my favorite images taken yesterday in the Centennial Valley.
I was also delighted to photograph this juvenile Mountain Bluebird on the way to Gravelly Range early in the morning.
I photographed this migrating Least Sandpiper in the same pond as the Wilson's Phalarope chick at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge but on different days.
These are a few of the Beaverhead County Red-tailed Hawks that I have photographed while on this trip to Montana and Idaho.
I went looking for a mammal species yesterday and dipped on them but hit the jackpot by getting a lifer bird, a Northern Pygmy-Owl and it had prey!
I was photographing a Wilson's Phalarope chick and it was in fact the youngest phalarope chick I had ever seen!
When I lived in Florida I was able to see and photograph juvenile Royal Terns on the Gulf Coast were they could be seen along the shoreline and they were usually begging the adults for food.