I love winter, I love seeing snow on the mountains and feeling the crispness in the air but I am getting tired of gray cloudy days and heavy fog so I thought I would post a few bird images from warmer and sunnier days that I took while I lived in Florida.
Yesterday I spotted a covey of Chukars on Antelope Island foraging in the snow, this Chukar was pulling guard duty and standing on top of a snow covered rock and for a bit it was calling.
This adult Swainson's had two juveniles nearby that were perched on the conifer tree that their natal nest was in and the sun was getting close to setting. Sometimes I wish I could "speak" raptor so I could know what they are saying.
A simple image from a series of images I took last year of a Chukar calling on a rocky outcropping with a snowy mountain in the background.
These images were taken at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Montana. There were two juvenile Willets plus an adult on the shoreline of the lower lake that delighted me.
I haven't heard a Long-billed Curlew calling for several weeks here in northern Utah and I already miss hearing their calls.
Willets have returned to Utah, on the causeway to Antelope Island hundreds of them can be seen in the shallow water. They seem to spend some time there fattening up after migration before they get down to the serious business of mating and rearing their young.
I photographed these male Marsh Wrens during breeding season when they were calling on their territories, while the male and female are alike in most aspects the exception is that only the males sing. And sing they do!
These Savannah Sparrows were nearly as much fun to observe as they were to photograph. They are very active birds and it was a challenge to keep up with them
Yesterday I observed an adult Willet defending its young from a group of Black-billed Magpies that were near the Willet's chicks.
Photographs of the Chukars on Antelope Island State Park, Utah throughout the year.
As a "Nature" photographer one of my goals is to create images that show the bird or animal's natural habitat within the frame
Adults have black eyes, the Black-billed Magpie juveniles have blue, gray or even violet eyes.
I was tickled to photograph this Chukar calling in the snow near the parking area of Frary Peak trailhead with the snow-covered mountain in the background.
Fish Crows are fairly commonplace along the coast of Pinellas County and they are often ignored by photographers because they are a "plain" common bird.