Rainbow and Wilson’s Phalaropes
As 2011 comes to a close and 2012 is just hours away , I wanted to do one more blog post for the year.
As 2011 comes to a close and 2012 is just hours away , I wanted to do one more blog post for the year.
White-crowned Sparrows can be seen foraging in the grasses, rabbitbrush and sagebrush that grow along the edge of the road.
Last week while out photographing I spotted a Prairie Falcon in the midst of a tussle with two Common Ravens in mid air. At times it seemed that the falcon was chasing the ravens and then the tables would turn and it appeared that the ravens were diving at the falcon.
I am not sure why but it seems that many bird photographers avoid taking images of gulls, most of the time when I've asked them why they don't take more photos of gulls I hear "I just don't like gulls".
While I lived in Florida I took thousands (and thousands) of images of Reddish Egrets and I am very glad that I did because they are rarities in Utah, where I now live.
Red-tailed Hawk with Long-billed syndrome, a perfect example of the sickle-bill form (the worst) all the way over in Utah and the first I am aware of for that state.
I have learned that you have to be prepared to be a bird photographer and additionally that you need to be fast because birds are free moving creatures. There are times that you simply don't or won't have time to change your camera's settings.
I used to dream about getting images like this one of Pronghorns when all I had was a simple Point & Shoot camera and I could never get close enough to the pronghorns to achieve my dreams. Now I can.
I spent the rest of the trip in the San Rafael Swell area very carefully watching where I put my feet because I didn't want another Close Encounter of the Snake Kind!
This October 3rd I spotted this pronghorn for the third or fourth time in this past year only this time I had good light, the buck wasn't far away and because it is rut season he was only paying attention to the does and other bucks in the area.
It didn't take long for me to check my ISO, my aperture and other techs as I dropped onto my knees before laying flat on my belly to photograph the flock of 20 or so Whimbrels.
I've only photographed Bighorn Sheep (Mountain Sheep some people call them) a few times and here they were, calmly foraging close to where I was! I was thrilled and excited.
This Friday's Photo is that of a Wilson's Plover, a species I very much enjoyed photographing while I lived in Florida.
The first destination was Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge a place I've become very familiar with and a location that I think is incredibly beautiful.
There were high thin clouds and that worked in my favor to photograph these large white birds without blowing out the whites.
As much as I love going to Antelope Island State Park to photograph birds I also enjoy going there to see and photograph the furry animals that can be found there.
This spring and summer I've a little been disappointed by how few Clark's Grebe images I have been able to take.
This is probably one of the moments where the juvenile Burrowing Owl looked more serious than at other times.
For the past two days I have been having an amazing time photographing a family of Red-tailed Hawks; including at least 4 juveniles, in Tooele County, Utah
The American Kestrel is our smallest falcon in North America but what they lack in size I feel they make up for in attitude.
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
Nikon's Image Overlay Function. Yes, I was experimenting with a little bit of Summer Lunacy. This is a bit whimsical and it makes me smile.
Seeing this newborn Pronghorn is one of those experiences that I will never forget. I already think that Pronghorn young are the cutest furry baby mammals on the planet.
While at the refuge it rained, it hailed, there was thunder, lighting and at times even gale force winds but the biggest weather surprise after leaving the refuge was seeing snow falling lightly near Lima, MT... in June.
I will soon be on the road back to Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in southern Montana, another one of my favorite locations on this planet.
After a recent journey from Simpson Springs in Tooele County to Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge in Juab County I have added it as a Favorite Location. It was an amazing trip with gorgeous views. I hope to return there soon.
For days it has been raining (sometimes hailing), cloudy and a miserable gray here in the Salt Lake Valley though it seems like two weeks to this bird photographer.
What made me sick was that there were three of those people tromping around the owl's burrow. I mean RIGHT up on it. They had no need to be that close but they were.
This Northern Harrier took about a minute to expel the pellet and I filled my buffer several times trying to catch all the action. The harrier appeared to be concentrating so hard on regurgitating the pellet that it nearly fell off of the fence.
There are times when I think an image might be worth a little extra work in post processing and this young male Northern Harrier image seemed worth the effort to repair a clipped wingtip.