I mentioned in my post about Short-eared Owls yesterday that I saw Burrowing Owls, Turkey Vultures and a third year Bald Eagle juvenile in northern Utah so I thought I would share a few more images form the northern Utah excursion.
Yesterday it was the northern Utah Short-eared Owls that made me so very glad that I am a bird photographer and that for a little while I am part of their world.
I was able to take this male Yellow-headed Blackbird portrait because the bird seemed more intent on catching midges than being nervous about me.
Seeing this Bison bull grazing on fresh grass isn't an unusual occurrence for me because I see them so often on Antelope Island but I also realize that there are quite a few people who haven't had the pleasure of seeing them in the wild like I do.
This Sage Thrasher and Lark Sparrow on rabbitbrush are only two of the birds that benefit from the rabbitbrush on Antelope Island.
I have only seen and photographed these two Great Blue Herons expelling bile in Florida and Utah. I wonder how often this occurs.
I always enjoy when the Clark's Grebes return to northern Utah and hope that this year I will be able to photograph their weed ceremony or them rushing.
Antelope Island Chukars don't just attract out of town visitors to the island, they still call in locals like myself to see, hear and photograph them.
I was able to take images of a Box Elder County Yellow-bellied Marmot further south next to the road near the foothills of the Promontory Mountains.
This adult Western Kingbird close up was photographed two years ago on Antelope Island State Park as it perched on a sign post close to a nest site.
More of the swallows will migrate to the refuge very soon and the Cliff Swallow nesting season will start.
I was able to take a Mallard drake portrait of one of the ducks that were close and loved how this showed the blue green iridescence.
These images from different times of the year show Mountain Bluebird plumage development stages from not long after fledging to adulthood.
I wanted to post an image with my D810 update instead of having a white page with just text. This photo of a Red Rock Lakes NWR sunrise is one that that I created on the last day of my last trip to Montana last year.
I eagerly anticipate the birds that arrive with spring including an early spring Western Grebe who will soon be courting and rushing at the refuge.
After they burn the phragmites it doesn't take long for life to go back to normal for some of the birds like this Killdeer in a burned area.
Both of these Chukars above the Great Salt Lake were photographed on the east side of Antelope Island State Park this month.
These images of a Great Blue Heron at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge were taken last September on the auto tour route at the refuge.
The highlight of my morning yesterday was photographing two Yellow-bellied Marmots at Capitol Reef National Park.
This West Desert Horned Lark in golden light was taken in the foothills of the Stansbury Mountains of Tooele County on a clear morning last month.
I was able to photograph this Peregrine Falcon in flight in front of a brightly colored sandstone cliff face with the light of the setting sun on it. I was delighted.
Yesterday I found this Western Meadowlark take off photo that I took last year on Antelope Island State Park.
Last September I was able to observe and photograph a Merlin in southwestern Montana over a period of several days.
Last year I had the pleasure of photographing this nonbreeding Sora in the Centennial Valley of Montana.
Last year in mid August I photographed a very cooperative juvenile Barn Swallow at Bear River MBR and realized I hadn't posted any images of the bird or written about my encounter with it.
Turkey Vultures are Nature's clean up crew. They consume road kill and other dead animals and and in doing so they clean up the messy stuff.
I photographed this immature Black-billed Magpie in flight last September on Antelope Island State Park as it flew over a rabbitbrush that was just about to bloom.
I feel fortunate that I am able to see and photograph both the Western and Eastern Kingbird juveniles here in northern Utah.
These two Loggerhead Shrike juveniles on a log were photographed last August on Antelope Island and were probably from a second brood.
I was photographing a pair of cranes foraging on the ground when a pair of Sandhill Cranes calling in flight flew over and I took a series of images of them.