One of my favorite locations to photograph birds in northern Utah is Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. I've selected some of the birds there that delight and entertain me while I observe and photograph them.
There is a rather large Pumpkin Patch near the road going to the Nature Center at Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area where I like to photograph birds. They have a straw maze and all kinds of activities for children too.
One year ago today it was slow on Antelope Island, not many birds were close enough to photograph but on the way home I spotted this female Brewer's Blackbird on some rocks near one of the bridges on the causeway to the island.
While out on Antelope Island State Park on Friday I spotted a male Brewer's Blackbird on top of a bush, the light was just great for viewing and photographing the iridescent teals, blues, greens and purples that can show up on these "black" birds.
Yellow-headed Blackbirds (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) can perch on cattails, reeds, rushes or mounds of vegetation and snatch Midges right out of the air.
Yellow-headed Blackbirds have begun to show up in large numbers in my area of the country. I'm seeing them perched on cattails, phragmites and in flight.
Brewer's Blackbirds may not be the most well known of the Blackbird family; I am fairly certain that the Red-winged Blackbirds have that claim to fame, but they are beautiful and interesting subjects to photograph.
Red-winged Blackbirds are birds that I associate with spring, the males begin calling perched on top of reeds, cattails, grasses and shrubs and flash their brightly colored coverts to attract a mate.
Photographing birds during Autumn is a wonderful time for me in Utah, the beautiful fall colors delight and enthrall me, the air gets nippy and I find myself feeling a surge of energy whenever I am outdoors.
Spring seduces me. Refreshes me. It whispers to me softly to come outside and savor nature and wildlife.
Recently the USDA accepted responsibility for a smaller die off in South Dakota which brought to light a little known program called "Bye bye Blackbird" which uses DRC-1339, a poison that is also called an avicide.