Chironomidae
Midges from the family Chironomidae are non-biting, two-winged flies that superficially resemble mosquitoes.
May 20th is World Bee Day and I am sharing a photo of two native bees this morning. The Great Basin Bumble Bee and the Long-horned Bee. Native bees are important pollinators.
I have complained about the midges in this post because they are messy and annoying but one thing that I feel is critical to mention is that these midges are an important food source for the birds that live and breed at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.
On my recent trip to Idaho and Montana I didn't have many opportunities with Wilson's Phalaropes except for one at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge's Lower Lake.
This male Red-winged Blackbird was photographed yesterday at Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area.
This morning while Antelope Island there was a Loggerhead Shrike perched on a dead branch that was near the north shoreline of the Great Salt Lake.
Midges are an important food source for the birds that live and breed in the marshes and wetlands of Utah and they have recently begun to hatch.
Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge has five species of swallows, they are Tree, Northern Rough-winged, Violet-green, Cliff and Barn Swallows.
Yellow-headed Blackbirds (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) can perch on cattails, reeds, rushes or mounds of vegetation and snatch Midges right out of the air.
This spring and summer I've a little been disappointed by how few Clark's Grebe images I have been able to take.
This is the time of the year that "midges" are as thick as flies on you-know-what at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.