Red-naped Sapsuckers Feeding Chicks at a Nesting Cavity in the Uintas
Finding Red-naped Sapsuckers feeding chicks at a nesting cavity in the Uintas made my day!
Finding Red-naped Sapsuckers feeding chicks at a nesting cavity in the Uintas made my day!
I liked this image of a Tree Swallow near Modoc Creek because of the eye contact, head turn, colors and the pattern of the conifer needles in the background.
I photographed my favorite nesting tree in the Targhee National Forest and this Northern Flicker nesting cavity.
I spent about three months in 2008 watching a Great Horned Owl nest on Honeymoon Island State Park in Florida from hatching until this young owl fledged.
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 am heart-broken about losing the Magical Sapsucker Tree but I am glad to have found a few more where the chicks are thriving and are safe so far.
I could hear the Northern Flicker excavating inside the nesting cavity and when he would stop he would appear with a bill full of shavings and forcefully eject them from the cavity.
Yesterday may have started off dreary but it sure got lively with a Willamson's Sapsucker, Mountain Chickadee and a pair of Red-breasted Nuthatches at the Magical Sapsucker Tree!
In January of 2009 I went to Myakka River State Park with three of my bird photography friends and the raptor highlight of the day was this Red-shouldered Hawk.
This Red-shouldered Hawk was just a few feet away from a tidal lagoon and just yards away from the Gulf when I photographed it in November of 2008.
Lately it has been wonderful to see and photograph more birds including raptors. I think the long dry spell that started the end of July might be over finally.
I enjoyed my journey to Beaver Dam Wash, Gunlock State Park and the Mojave Desert even though I didn't see the birds I hoped to photograph, every journey is an adventure.
I would love to say that while I am wandering around exploring the natural wonders we have been gifted with that I can forget about the assaults on the land and the creatures that live there but I can't.
A month ago I photographed a pair of Williamson's Sapsuckers excavating a nesting cavity in Idaho and this past week I spent several days photographing them again.
I could barely contain myself because in my viewfinder was a gorgeous red, yellow and black colored male Williamson's Sapsucker.
What can I say about this image of an adult Great Horned Owl feeding its young that is strongly back lit by the setting sun on Honeymoon Island State Park in Florida?
The bad weather here has given me cabin fever so last night I looked through my archives and enjoyed some images from brighter, warmer days and came across this juvenile Red-naped Sapsucker image from my first camping trip to Utah's high Uintas in Summit County.
But for me the "Snow Birds" I have grown to love here in Utah are Rough-legged Hawks who only visit in the winter and spend the rest of their lives breeding in high subarctic and Arctic regions.
I have mentioned in recent posts that winter can be harsh in the Salt Lake Valley in posts with images I had taken at Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area so I wanted to share these two images taken there yesterday.
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.
There are five recognized subspecies of Red-shouldered Hawks with the Florida Red-shouldered Hawks having the palest heads and plumage. I believe this Red-shouldered Hawk adult is from the Florida race, Buteo lineatus extimus.
I was photographing some Pine Siskins along a road in Madison County, Montana when this male Red-shafted Northern Flicker stuck his head out of his nesting cavity in an aspen and surprised me.
I photographed this mated pair of Red-tailed Hawks last week in western Montana as they soaked up the warming rays of the morning sun.
This juvenile Red-naped Sapsucker image was taken on my first camping trip in the high Uintas in Summit County, Utah not far from Christmas Meadows.
There was a bit of sun yesterday between snow falls and we headed out to Antelope Island hoping there would be light and birds. There was light and a few birds, this Black-billed Magpie was one of them.
Having one Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) in my viewfinder is a joy and getting two of them in the same frame is even more of a delight.
Rough-legged Hawks breed in the Arctic so we don't see them around here in northern Utah during the summer.
Merlins are winter visitors in the Salt Lake Valley so I have just a few more weeks to attempt photographing them. Merlins are used to be called "pigeon hawks" because their shape and flight patterns are similar to pigeons.
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.
I'm looking forward to seeing red-tailed hawks in the high country of Utah and Montana this summer and hopefully getting some more images of both the juveniles and adult.