If the Bear River is dammed upstream I have to wonder if we will see history repeating itself but made even worse by climate change, reduced snow pack and rising temperatures and how that will impact the refuge.
The Sandhill Crane colts at Farmington Bay are as tall as their parents and look just like them except for the markings on their head and the color of their bills and eyes.
After a rainy summer day there were puddles on the dirt roads of Antelope Island State Park and this juvenile Loggerhead Shrike took advantage of a puddle and bathed.
The young Burrowing Owls I have been following and photographing are growing up but many of them still stay close to the burrows they hatched in.
I am seeing more and more Wilson's Phalaropes at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and the majority of the birds I see are hatch year birds.
So even though I didn't come home with many Burrowing Owls images yesterday these Western Kingbird images more than made up for it!
I don't often have the opportunity to photograph young Lark Sparrows so I jumped at the chance last Saturday when I saw this one on Antelope Island State Park.
You might wonder why I think it is tough being a bird photographer when it comes to Burrowing Owls.
Yesterday I posted a juvenile Wilson's Phalarope and today I am posting an assortment of others birds I photographed the same day at Bear River NWR.
Bear River National Wildlife Refuge was lovely yesterday morning and one of the nice surprises I found was this juvenile Wilson's Phalarope on the west side of the auto tour route.
I went wandering in the West Desert of Utah yesterday because the views are always great and because I hoped to find a few birds.
I think I could photograph juvenile Burrowing Owls for two months straight and not get bored with them.
I processed an older image of a juvenile Sandwich Tern in flight from my Florida archives to post this morning.
Antelope Island State Park is full of juvenile Loggerhead Shrikes right now so it looks like the shrikes had a very successful nesting season.
Leopards don't change their spots but juvenile Burrowing Owls do change their spots on their chests as they mature.
There are loads of young Sage Thrashers on Antelope Island at the moment so it seems their first broods were fairly successful.
When I looked at this Burrowing Owl image on my monitor I had to chuckle because in a strange way it reminded me of myself when I first dove off of a 10 meter platform and how my toes were the last to let go.
On an extremely hot April day I was out on Egmont Key for a Florida Master Naturalist class and from a distance I thought I saw some Black Skimmers and Least Terns resting on a beach but they turned out to be decoys.
I thought I would share some images I have taken of Western Burrowing Owls that I took over several days spent with them in Box Elder County, Utah.
Last week I posted an image of Burrowing Owl siblings that I found in northern Utah and today I am posting images of that burrow after spending yesterday morning being delighted by them once more.
I thought a post on the growth of bills in Long-billed Curlews might interest some of my readers.
Earlier this week while photographing Western Kingbirds I also had opportunities to photograph a first year male Bullock's Oriole on Antelope Island State Park.
On the 20th of May I saw my first of the year Loggerhead Shrike fledglings but it wasn't until the 24th that I was able to photograph this young shrike.
I have already seen Sage Thrasher chicks on Antelope Island State Park and I suspect it won't be long before I see juvenile Western Meadowlarks learning how to fly and feed on their own.
This morning winter is trying to creep back into northern Utah but I am thinking of warmer weather, Montana and Great Horned Owls.
This morning I was looking through some images that I had taken in August of 2014 and came across this juvenile Western Kingbird photo that I hadn't touched at all.
On the way out of the refuge in an area I have heard called Curlew Flats I spotted this juvenile Northern Harrier on the ground and was able to take a few images of it before it lifted off with prey in its talons.
I wonder if this juvenile Swainson's made the long migration to South America and if I will see it again in the Centennial Valley of Montana this spring.
The first year I after I moved to Utah was great for photographing Burrowing Owls and their young both on Antelope Island State Park and the causeway to it.
Earlier this week I was able to photograph a juvenile White-crowned Sparrow up close while it fed on sagebrush seeds on Antelope Island State Park.