My First of Year Monarch Butterfly Sighting
I'm always happy to photograph "other things with wings" when I am out in the field so last week when I spotted my first of year Monarch butterfly I had to take a few photos of it.
I'm always happy to photograph "other things with wings" when I am out in the field so last week when I spotted my first of year Monarch butterfly I had to take a few photos of it.
I don't know for sure if I will see another Short-eared Owl to photograph this year but I do know I had fun photographing these three.
When I spotted this sharp-looking, adult male Lazuli Bunting less than 30 feet away from where I sat in a mobile blind on the side of the road I almost jumped with joy.
Despite the difficulties I have finding and photographing MacGillivray's Warblers I will keep trying to take better images of them.
When this adult male Yellow Warbler landed in a willow near me I was more than happy to photograph him surrounded by the willows.
I heard the male Green-tailed Towhee before I could see him perched on the weathered post with lichens on the top so a view of him was no surprise for me.
Tree Swallows and other birds should be nesting in the Uinta Mountains by now and I am itching to hop into my Jeep to drive up there to find them.
Almost one year ago I spent my morning photographing so many Yellow-rumped Warblers that they seemed to almost drip from the trees.
Of the hundred or so images I took of the male Broad-tailed Hummingbirds in that small and very windy area I only liked this one photo.
This adult male Swainson's Hawk was perched near his nest in a light rain and although he looked soaking wet that didn't appear to bother him much at all.
To photograph House Wrens and other birds I know I need to find them which means focusing my attention on the sights and sounds around me whenever I am out in the field which has worked extremely well for me.
When the male Broad-tailed Hummingbird had had enough of getting bounced around he took off in a hurry with the wind fluffing up his upper chest feathers and the right side of his colorful gorget.
Three days ago I was able to take my first of season Yellow Warbler photos when a male came up close to where I sat in my Jeep in a high mountain canyon.
The first time I raised my lens yesterday morning in the Wasatch Mountains it was for three Elk I spotted on a hillside.
One year ago today I "whooped" out loud when I spotted my first of the year Green-tailed Towhee singing as he perched in top of a sagebrush.
That is one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven posts about birds, wildlife, flowers and the incredible scenery I see out in the field.
By excavating their own nests Northern Flickers provide nests for other woodland birds that can't excavate nesting cavities on their own and those nests can be used over and over again. Nature is brilliant.
Yesterday I had a blast photographing a pair of Mountain Bluebirds at a natural nesting cavity at the edge of a forest along with some other woodland birds.
Two days ago my pulse quickened when I saw and heard my first of the season Yellow Warblers while looking for birds to photograph high up in the Wasatch Mountains.
In just a matter of days Wax Currants will start to bloom in some of the lower elevations of the mountains that aren't far from where I live and that has me excited.
I spent yesterday morning high up in the Wasatch Mountains where part of the time I focused on photographing the Belted Kingfishers that I found in two counties.
These are the stories behind how I took these Red-breasted Nuthatch and Juniper Titmouse photos while relaxing and enjoying a lovely day in the West Desert.
Six years ago in early April I went to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and photographed this male American Avocet stretching his wings while his head was low to the water.
I took hundreds of photos of the tom Wild Turkey fanning his tail, walking on the dirt road, strutting and displaying for the hens I could not see. And for those moments all seemed right in the world.
The adult Red-naped Sapsuckers often clung to the entrance to the nesting cavity for a few seconds before they went inside with the food they had gathered to give to their chicks.
My rare Mountain Plover sighting happened almost seven years ago on Antelope Island State Park when I spotted, identified and photographed of the plovers during spring migration.
For one and a half wonderful nesting seasons I was thrilled to photograph a pair of mated Williamson's Sapsuckers excavating a nest and tending to their young.
I photographed this adult male Horned Lark singing on a snow-topped fence post three days ago after a spring snow fell overnight in the West Desert.
If I hadn't have been paying attention yesterday I might have missed out on spotting a flock of turkeys in some junipers and photographing a smoke phase Wild Turkey hen.