I saw quite a few Long-billed Curlews yesterday wandering in the spring grasses and this time I was able to get nice images of them. Nicknames for Long-billed Curlews include "sicklebird" and "candlestick bird."
American White Pelicans are returning to their breeding grounds in Utah and I have already seen a few of them myself and though I haven't been able to photograph them yet I know I will soon.
I was pleased to see and photograph my first of the year Turkey Vulture perched on a fence post next to a road yesterday in northern Utah.
The best bird photography opportunity of the day happened when I spotted a Burrowing Owl near its burrow and I took advantage of the nice light to take quite a few images of the owl framed by grasses and blooming Red-stem Filaree.
Little Blue Herons start off their lives with white plumage, then look piebald with blue and white fathers and finally look more "blue" as adults.
On my last two trips up to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge I have heard Savannah Sparrows singing "sit sit sit sit suh-EEEEE say" from somewhere in the marshes.
Western Meadowlarks are very active right now on the island, searching for insects, scurrying through the grasses and singing their hearts out from their favorite perches.
I took several hundred images of a female Belted Kingfisher looking for and catching prey while it was bright and sunny yesterday afternoon.
The Cooper's Hawk took flight without much warning at all and for a second I lost it while tracking the hawk but regained focus as it flew south past me.
While up in Mercur Canyon I caught a flash of browns and grays on top of a rock and realized I was seeing the Rock Squirrel I photographed on the same slope last month.
I am very fond of Yellow-bellied Marmots so when I spotted one clambering down some rocks into a crevice close to the road I became excited and as soon as I could I started taking photos of it.
The first of March always makes me think of and listen for Long-billed Curlews, our largest shorebird of North America.
In 2009 I photographed this foraging Marbled Godwit and friends on exposed mudflats of a Fort De Soto County Park lagoon.
Short-eared Owls are nomadic because they follow their main prey which is voles and if the vole population is low the Short-eared Owl density will also be low.
I expect to see Greater Yellowlegs soon because they are one of the first shorebirds to migrate through Utah on their way to their breeding grounds.
I will be listening for the male Marsh Wrens songs at the pond nearby and the marshes at Farmington Bay WMA and Bear River MBR and waiting to see them pop up on top of the cattails, phrags and rushes.
I was excited and delighted to spot and photograph a coyote running on the ice of the Great Salt Lake a few days ago in the golden light just after dawn.
These portraits of bison bulls drinking from an iced over puddle were taken with my Nikon D500, my 500mm VR lens with a teleconverter attached from inside a vehicle.
I spent forty-one minutes observing and photographing this Peregrine Falcon yesterday while it rested, preened and stretched right next to the Great Salt Lake.
This Brewer's Blackbird male was with several other males on some weathered wooden pallets next to the road when he shook and fluffed up his feathers.
I have mentioned before how one good bird can make a day and yesterday that bird was a male American Kestrel resting and preening at Farmington Bay WMA.
The surprise birds of the day were Gray Partridges in an area where I hadn't seen them before and they were feeding close to the edge of the road.
I did not see many birds that dreary day but I did have fun photographing a Coyote hunting, catching and consuming a vole in low light conditions.
American Coots are quarrelsome birds and they are quick to give chase whether it is over food or territory and they will fight, sometimes even to death, for both.
When I saw this Pied-billed Grebe bathing at Farmington Bay I couldn't resist photographing it as it splashed water all over itself.
This photo of a male Mountain Bluebird in Wayne County, Utah made me smile when I thought about the location where it was created because it is so wild and beautiful up there.
My best find of the day was a Peregrine Falcon in the snow perched on a colorful boulder with a snowy background.
Several of the Gadwalls were tipping their heads under the water to feed when this drake started to flap his wings before settling back down on the water.
The American Kestrel was perched on an arching wild rose branch with prey in his bill when I photographed him with snow covered ice and the Wasatch Mountains in the background
The question regarding this proposal is... Willet happen?