American Coots aren't thought of as "gorgeous" birds but I do find them appealing and a challenge to expose properly because of the high contrast between the very dark feathers and the whiteness of the ivory colored bill.
Many of the adult Red-tailed Hawks that I saw and photographed in southwestern Montana on my last trip had worn feathers and were molting.
Yesterday while on the auto tour route of Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge the birds that I saw in the highest numbers were American White Pelicans.
Red-tailed Hawks have the most variable plumages of North American hawks but Swainson's Hawks are also pretty variable, there are light morphs, intermediate morphs and dark morphs.
This adult Red-tailed flew by at close range which gave me a very nice view of the underside of its wing that shows it was also molting though it didn't look as raggedy as some of the other adult Red-tailed Hawks looked.
So I finally have images of the breeding plumage of this small shorebird that show the spots that gave this bird the name Spotted Sandpiper!
I had been looking at the shoreline where the tree line comes down to the river when I saw what appeared to be a large dark boulder move only the "boulder" had legs and the face of a Black Bear!
I photographed the adult Swainson's Hawk above after it had lifted off from a power pole in Beaverhead County and loved that I had thin clouds in the background which is far more pleasing to my eye than plain blue sky.
Laughing Gulls are quite noisy when they are in a flock but I never minded listening to them, in fact they often made me laugh.
The Northern Yellow Warbler in my image was singing along a creek lined with willows and although the bird is small in the frame I find this image appealing because of the simple lines, the bird's pose and the wonderful eye contact the bird gave me as it briefly looked towards me.
Last week while heading up the Skyline Drive of Bountiful Canyon this Green-tailed Towhee was singing on top of a shrub and I was surprised when it hung around for about 2 minutes
When I spotted this Mule Deer doe standing in the golden light on the Antelope Island causeway I thought I would take a few static images of her but as soon as I stopped the doe began to run so I fired off a burst of shots as I panned her movement and knew they would be blurred
I don't see Dusky Grouse near as often as I would like to see them so I was quite happy when I saw several of them last week on my way up Skyline Drive to Bountiful Peak in northern Utah.
I readily admit that sometimes I daydream about being able to fly like a bird and quite often the bird I wish I were is a Red-tailed Hawk.
In Florida I found it easy to get close up images of Great Blue Herons because quite often they are used to the presence of humans but here in Utah that isn't the case and Great Blue Herons are sort of skittish.
Last week while photographing in a canyon in the Stansbury Mountains in Tooele County, Utah I spotted this Turkey Vulture roosting in a dead tree in morning light.
I was able to photograph this Barn Swallow on Antelope Island yesterday as it rested on a rock and as I took images the swallow opened its bill for a few frames.
Great Horned Owls and old wood seem to go together like salt and pepper, stars and stripes or peanut butter and jelly, they are a great combination!
I want to thank Neil Paprocki for sharing information about Al Larson and the upcoming film The Bluebird Man, I have learned a lot from the web site and through my interview with Neil and I am all for learning more about the wonderful natural world around me.
The other day when I photographed the Black-crowned Night Heron at Bear River National Wildlife Refuge I also photographed some Clark's and Western Grebes, I found these two images of this Western Grebe interesting and wanted to post them.
I spotted this Black-crowned Night Heron that was almost hidden by the vegetation but as soon as we stopped it darted towards some open water in foraging mode.
On April 10th I spotted two Mountain Plovers on Antelope Island State Park after reporting it to the UBIRD birding list many birders and bird photographers sped to the island to see these birds which are a rarity in this area.
There are seasonal cycles on Antelope Island State park, winter turns to spring, spring to summer, summer to fall and fall to winter but there are also yearly cycles for the wildflowers that bloom on the island too.
Five years ago today I headed to the north beach of Fort De Soto County Park despite knowing that there were looming storms off of the coast hanging just off shore over the Gulf of Mexico and I am glad that I did because the light that day on the beach was exquisite.
Two days ago I posted a portrait of a juvenile Loggerhead Shrike that I had photographed on Antelope Island State Park, today I am posting an image of an adult Loggerhead Shrike taken a day after I photographed the young shrike.
There are Sage Thrashers aplenty on Antelope Island State Park right now and they have been thrashing, dashing and singing their little hearts out the last three trips I have made out to the island.
Both of these Laughing Gull images were taken at Fort De Soto County Park's north beach in Florida, the image above shows a Laughing gull in nonbreeding plumage that was taken in September of 2008.
I like to include habitat in my images when I am able to do so, especially when the habitat doesn't obstruct the view of my subject or when the habitat helps to define a sense of place.
I love the raised wings of the Ferruginous Hawk, the bright blue sky with just a hint of clouds and the regal raptor soaring above me and the Stansbury Mountains in Tooele County, Utah
In early June while in western Montana there was a pair of Wilson's Phalaropes on a small, privately owned pond near a gravel road foraging for prey that I couldn't resist photographing.