{"id":102297,"date":"2022-05-11T04:57:58","date_gmt":"2022-05-11T10:57:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=102297"},"modified":"2024-02-05T14:32:26","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T21:32:26","slug":"gray-flycatcher-and-memories-of-billy-fenimore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/05\/11\/gray-flycatcher-and-memories-of-billy-fenimore\/","title":{"rendered":"Gray Flycatcher And Memories Of Billy Fenimore"},"content":{"rendered":"

While I was out in the West Desert of Utah yesterday I thought about my friend Billy Fenimore and his family as I photographed this adult Gray Flycatcher. Billy unexpectedly and suddenly became ill and was hospitalized last month, was diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and sadly he passed away on May 5th.<\/p>\n

\"GrayGray Flycatcher perched in junipers \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Billy was a true friend, a father, grandfather, husband, brother, son and a bird lover. Like his father, author Bill Fenimore<\/span><\/a>, Billy spread his knowledge about birds freely and would talk to anyone about birds where he worked at the Eccles Wildlife Education Center<\/span><\/a> at Farmington Bay WMA, the Wild About Birds Nature Center in Layton or in the field. Billy always had a smile on his face.<\/p>\n

Several years ago I helped Billy create his website, ChasingWildFeathers.com, where the goal was for Billy and his friends\u00a0Dan Sachse and James Hoffman to bird in every county in Utah and raise funds for Youth Impact<\/span><\/a> while they birded. When Billy was hired to work at the Eccles Wildlife Education Center he had to slow down his birding adventures in the field and his work on his site. Billy continued to educate and share his knowledge of birds while he worked at the nature center. Billy touched so many people’s lives.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult Gray Flycatcher in spring \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

As my friend Billy enriched my life personally as and as a bird photographer. I don’t get stumped with bird identification often but when I have Billy was one of my two “go to” friends that I knew I could contact for help. I struggled with empid flycatchers and would seek Billy’s input with them. It seemed fitting that I would find a Gray Flycatcher in the field yesterday while I thought about Billy.<\/p>\n

When I found rare birds or birds that Billy loved I could count on a call or a text from him. More often than not it was a phone call and we’d talk about the birds that I was finding and that he was seeing or about our latest adventures. We talked about our families, kids, dogs, birds, the weather and life in general.<\/p>\n

Billy was a great and true friend. Yesterday I thought about him a lot as his friend Dan Sasche and I texted about the birds I was seeing. I like to think that Billy would have enjoyed our conversation too. I had always wanted to show Billy the West Desert through my eyes. I guess I did yesterday. I miss you Billy. The world was brighter with you in it.<\/p>\n

As always, I plan on living life today<\/em>. We aren’t promised a tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

If you would like to donate to help Billy’s family donations are being accepted here<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my Gray Flycatcher photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While I was out in the West Desert of Utah yesterday I thought about my friend Billy Fenimore and his family as I photographed this adult Gray Flycatcher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":102291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,413,358,26,1314],"tags":[4004,12866,12868,4098,12865,701,5241,3808,4884,12867,2421,3914,4674,4104,10452,165],"class_list":["post-102297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-gray-flycatcher","category-tooele-county","category-utah","category-west-desert-utah","tag-adult","tag-billy-fenimore","tag-creutzfeldt-jakob-disease","tag-desert","tag-empid","tag-empidonax-wrightii","tag-empids","tag-flycatcher","tag-flycatchers","tag-friend","tag-gray-flycatcher","tag-juniper","tag-junipers","tag-perched","tag-sky-island-mountains","tag-spring"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/gray-flycatcher-in-junipers-mia-mcpherson-2288.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-qBX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":60091,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/09\/08\/gray-flycatcher-perched-in-fragrant-sumac\/","url_meta":{"origin":102297,"position":0},"title":"Gray 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