Centennial Valley Merlin
I don't often have the opportunity to photograph Merlins so I was plenty excited to find one yesterday on the South Valley Road in the Centennial Valley that stuck around for a bit!
I don't often have the opportunity to photograph Merlins so I was plenty excited to find one yesterday on the South Valley Road in the Centennial Valley that stuck around for a bit!
I was in far northern Utah yesterday and saw the hawks I expected to see but finding this Great Horned Owl was a bit of a surprise since I wasn't looking for Great Horned Owls.
I only have time for a quick post this morning and decided to post one of the migrant kingbirds I look forward to seeing every year, an Eastern Kingbird.
I saw a fleeting glimpse of a bird a few days ago that I suspect was a Merlin that migrated to winter here in Utah and it inspired me to post a few Merlin images today.
Earlier this month I had the opportunity to photograph a Merlin two mornings in a row in the Centennial Valley of Montana, once in low light and once as a fog rolled in.
There are times when the birds I want to photograph are too far away and then there are times when the birds get too close, this Red-tailed Hawk got too close.
Just a short Merlin post today from my Montana trip, a teaser for the images I will soon be posting.
I think all raptors have a ferocious appearance but this Ferruginous Hawk definitely looked ferocious to me yesterday right after it lifted off from its perch high on a pole.
Ferruginous Hawks are the largest hawk in North America which are only found in Canada and the United States and recent DNA analysis suggests that Ferruginous Hawks may be closer to Eagles in taxonomy than that of a hawk.
Ferruginous Hawks fascinate me, they are large, handsome and regal raptors. This one just appears to me to be surveying its kingdom from the top of a ranch gate in the Centennial Valley.
The scientific name of Eastern Kingbirds is Tyrannus tyrannus, Tyrannus means "tyrant" and they are well named because they will harass any bird that comes near their nests including crows, ravens and much larger birds like hawks.
I always look forward to seeing and photographing Eastern Kingbirds (Tyrannus tyrannus) during the warmer months of the year. I was fortunate to see a few yesterday at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in northern Utah.