Cloudy Sunrise Over the Wasatch Mountains At Farmington Bay WMA
It isn't often that my best photo of the day is a simple cell phone snap but that is kind of what happened yesterday at Farmington Bay WMA.
It isn't often that my best photo of the day is a simple cell phone snap but that is kind of what happened yesterday at Farmington Bay WMA.
Yesterday morning I spent time focused on photographing Ruby-crowned Kinglets in a Wasatch Mountain Canyon in a thicket of hawthorn and chokecherry trees.
I pulled over to the left side of the road after I passed the bush and the bird and I succeeded in getting the Cedar Waxwing in fairly good light with a cloudy sky background.
I spotted a flash of black, white and red as a bird landed in the aspen tree that was closest to me above where the wrens and swallows are nesting and realized that a male Red-naped Sapsucker had flown in and was foraging for food in the buds of the aspen.
When I lived in Florida I saw Snowy Egrets year round and that kind of spoiled me but here in Utah they leave for the winter and come back to the marshes and wetlands surrounding the Great Salt Lake for their breeding season.
The last couple of times I have gone to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and further north of there I have been so happy to hear and see, even if from a long distance, the return of our Sandhill Cranes.
The Tundra Swans are truly at home in the landscape of Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and they belong there as much as the mountains, marshes, birds, animals, fish, sky and the clouds overhead do.
My entire focus was on the calm Great Blue Heron in front of me and I felt as relaxed as the heron appeared to be that morning.
I had a blast photographing the Tundra Swans at the refuge yesterday and for the first time in a while I forgot about practically everything but the birds in front of me and the peace I find at the refuge.
Three frames later I was glad this Ring-billed Gull's rotund belly caught my eye when through my viewfinder I could see the gull preening while in flight which is unusual behavior in my experience.
People who are environmentally conscious and whom respect and love nature already know this, they are my sisters and brothers at arms.
I really wanted some nice bird photos to remember Christmas Day 2017 and I found them but just a few blocks away from home at the local pond.
For several weeks now Rough-legged Hawks have been migrating into northern Utah and showing up in locations where I have photographed them for years.
Yesterday morning found me at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, a wild and wonderful place that I am very thankful for because of the birds there, the spectacular scenery and the refuge I find within its boundaries.
A few days ago I photographed a Yellow-rumped Warbler at a pond close to home that was tossing its prey around before it consumed it.
The Marsh Wrens at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge live there year round even through the heat of summer and our harsh winters they are there going about the business of living.
I don't often have the opportunity of taking photos of ducks that are flying straight at me while coming in for a landing which is exactly what this drake mallard did.
Lark Sparrows are only in Utah during their breeding season so whenever I have the opportunity to photograph them and their bold facial patterns I am thoroughly delighted.
Spring is a time when the Horned Larks here in Utah perch on top of rocks, posts, mounds of dirt, junipers and sagebrush to sing their songs.
American White Pelicans are returning to their breeding grounds in Utah and I have already seen a few of them myself and though I haven't been able to photograph them yet I know I will soon.
Even though I can't see them with my eyes as I write this I can imagine Sandhill Cranes waiting for the first rays of the sun to reach the marshes where they spent the night.
On a hazy, windy day in May of 2008 I was able to sand crawl on my belly close enough to some Black Skimmers to watch and photograph them courting.
I have to say that when I viewed this image on my monitor of the Ferruginous Hawk taking off from the power pole yesterday that I laughed out loud.
Twice in the past two weeks I have seen Bald Eagles, one four year old bird in flight over the marshes at Farmington Bay WMA and one juvenile perched in a tree up in Box Elder County.
We do see Herring Gulls in northern Utah during the winter and I was able to photograph this one as it circled over the water with the snow-covered Promontory Mountains and sky behind it.
Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge hosts up to 13,000 Tundra Swans during November through December where they utilize the freshwater wetland habitats on the refuge.
If you would like to follow some of the American White Pelicans from Utah on migration a few of them have been fitted with solar-powered GPS transmitter backpacks and the PeliTrack map shows their locations.
I was able to lock on to the Herring Gull in flight with a sea urchin in its bill when it was close enough to me to fill the frame, it was almost too close at that point.
Even though I am saying a fond farewell to the Swainson's Hawks I'm also looking forward to Rough-legged Hawks gracing my life for another season.
I've always loved this image of a Forster's Tern in flight because the pose is wonderful and the tern looks elegant against the gray of a distant storm cloud.