feather – Mia McPherson's On The Wing Photography

Interesting Pied-billed Grebe Faux Crash-Dive Behavior

By Mia McPherson|2023-11-01T04:20:47-05:00November 1st, 2023|Categories: Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Birds, Box Elder County, Pied-billed Grebes, Utah|Tags: autumn, Crash-dive, defensive behavior, diving, diving behavior, fall, feather, floating, grebe, grebes, marsh, Pied-billed Grebe, Podilymbus podiceps, splashing, start, submarine, submarining, water, wetlands|

I had a great time observing and photographing a Pied-billed Grebe exhibiting Crash-dive behavior at Bear River MBR from the auto tour loop on Monday.

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Coming Soon: Great-tailed Grackle Breeding Season

By Mia McPherson|2023-02-21T03:48:56-06:00February 21st, 2023|Categories: Birds, Great-tailed Grackles, Salt Lake County, Utah|Tags: adult, bath, blackbirds, breeding display, close up, display, displaying, duo, feather, female, grackle, grackles, Great-tailed Grackle, Head-Up, intensely, looking, male, park, portrait, preening-tail, Quiscalus mexicanus, Ruff-Out, solo, spring, urban, winter|

On two of my most recent walks I have seen Great-tailed Grackles. Seeing them reminded me that Great-tailed Grackle breeding season is coming soon.

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Made It Through Christmas And I Am Just Ducky

By Mia McPherson|2023-01-02T04:09:01-06:00December 26th, 2022|Categories: Birds, Mallards, Salt Lake County, Utah|Tags: Anas platyrhynchos, bill, dabbling ducks, duck, ducks, ducky, feather, female, hen, ice, Mallard, mallards, pond, urban, waterfowl, winter|

Well, I made it through the Christmas part of the holidays this year in one piece and I am feeling just ducky.

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Immature Red-tailed Hawk In The West Desert

By Mia McPherson|2023-10-05T04:56:49-05:00September 11th, 2022|Categories: Birds, Red-tailed Hawks, Tooele County, Utah, West Desert|Tags: Buteo jamaicensis, Buteos, feather, fence post, foothills, hawk, hawks, immature, juniper, junipers, Juniperus osteosperma, looking, morning, perched, preening, raptors, Red-tailed Hawk, sky, sky island mountains, soaking up, summer, Tooele County, Utah, Utah Juniper, warmth, west desert, wooden post, young|

Last month while I wandered in the West Desert I found an immature Red-tailed Hawk perched on a wooden fence post in the foothills of some sky island mountains.

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White Feather Floating On A Pond

By Mia McPherson|2022-01-27T05:03:02-06:00January 27th, 2022|Categories: Birds, Miscellaneous, Salt Lake County, Utah|Tags: downy, feather, floating, fluffy, pond, pure, snow, truth, urban, water, white, winter|

A few days ago I came across this image of a snow white feather floating on a pond when I went down a rabbit hole into my photo archives.

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Cooperative West Desert Red-tailed Hawk

By Mia McPherson|2022-09-11T04:43:49-05:00September 13th, 2021|Categories: Birds, Red-tailed Hawks, Tooele County, Utah, West Desert|Tags: adult, Buteo jamaicensis, Buteos, calm cooperative, confiding, desert, errant, feather, foothills, habitat, hawk, hawks, haze, head, inset, junipers, Juniperus osteosperma, look, mountains, over the shoulder, perched, raptors, Red-tailed Hawk, sky, sky island mountains, smoky, summer, Utah Juniper|

Last week I photographed a very cooperative adult Red-tailed Hawk that was next to a road in the West Desert of Utah on a smoky morning.

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Adult House Wren With A Large Feather

By Mia McPherson|2024-02-26T10:36:27-06:00June 24th, 2021|Categories: Birds, House Wrens, Summit County, Utah, Wasatch Mountains|Tags: adult, canyon, feather, House Wren, metal pipe, mountains, nest, nest entrance, nesting material, nesting season, rusty, summer, Troglodytes aedon|

After taking photos of Cliff Swallows gathering nesting materials two days ago I took more House Wren photos of the nesting pair I found in the Wasatch Mountains.

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Mallard Feather Floating On A Pond

By Mia McPherson|2022-10-02T05:08:49-05:00December 1st, 2019|Categories: Birds, Mallards, Salt Lake County, Utah|Tags: Anas platyrhynchos, duck feather, ducks, feather, floating, fluffy, Mallard, pond, reflection, water, waterfowl, winter|

This was my favorite image of the morning. Just a fluffy mallard feather and the silky reflections on the pond.

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Photographing Nesting House Wrens in the High Uintas

By Mia McPherson|2024-02-26T06:57:11-06:00June 2nd, 2018|Categories: House Wrens, Nesting Birds, Summit County, Uinta Mountains, Uinta National Forest, Utah|Tags: adult, aspen, cavity, cavity nesters, feather, forest, frustrations in photography, high Uintas, House Wren, Mirror Lake Highway, mountains, nest, nest opening, nesting, nesting behavior, nesting cavity, nesting season, photographing, Populus tremuloides, Quaking Aspen, secondary cavity nesters, Troglodytes aedon, wren, wrens|

Two days ago I spent time photographing nesting House Wrens in the high Uintas near Mirror Lake Highway, of interest to me is that two years ago I photographed Red-naped Sapsuckers using this same nesting cavity.

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Turkey Vultures – Feathered Gatekeepers

By Mia McPherson|2021-03-12T07:18:41-06:00May 17th, 2017|Categories: Birds, Box Elder County, Turkey Vultures, Utah|Tags: bill, body temperatures, Cathartes aura, close up, feather, gatekeepers, gates, green gate, perched, poop, portrait, preening, red gate, resting, sun, thermoregulating, thermoregulation, Turkey Vulture, vulture, vultures, walking, warming up, weathered|

Normally I prefer natural perches for my subjects but I rather enjoyed photographing these Turkey Vultures and thinking of them as feathered gatekeepers.

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Western Grebe with a feather on its bill

By Mia McPherson|2021-08-19T16:27:00-05:00August 29th, 2015|Categories: Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Birds, Box Elder County, Utah, Western Grebes|Tags: adult, Aechmophorus occidentalis, feather, grebe, grebes, marsh, stomach, Western Grebe, wetlands|

Two days ago at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge I found a couple of Western Grebes preening in an area where the reflections on the water are always wonderful so I took a series of images.

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