{"id":108923,"date":"2022-12-21T04:13:07","date_gmt":"2022-12-21T11:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=108923"},"modified":"2026-03-24T18:10:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T23:10:37","slug":"happy-winter-solstice-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/12\/21\/happy-winter-solstice-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Winter Solstice 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy Winter Solstice!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"SunSun Dog<\/span><\/p>\n

May the Winter Solstice bring to you the promise of endless brand new days<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This is the astronomical first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and the shortest day of the year. The first day of astronomical winter in the Northern Hemisphere is marked by the winter solstice. After today the days begin to grow longer and longer. The solstice<\/span><\/a> only lasts a moment but many of us celebrate it the whole day long.<\/p>\n

On the Winter and the Summer Solstices I look for magic. Nature IS magic so I am rarely disappointed on those two days of the year. Today if there were sunshine here I would cast my longest shadow of the entire year. Unfortunately, it is going to be cloudy here today with snow and rain mixed so it isn’t likely I will see my shadow at all.<\/p>\n

A magical looking Sun Dog I photographed in 2014 seemed like the perfect image to share with this post today.<\/p>\n

Technically, today is also the first day of winter. Well, bring it on, we need the snow to help break our prolonged drought.<\/p>\n

But hey, Old Man Winter, can you just dump 4 to 5 inches of the white stuff at a time to make it easier for me to shovel? I’d much rather play in the snow.<\/p>\n

And, hello Winter, please be awesome!<\/p>\n

Happy Return to the Light!<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Miscellaneous photos which are basically images that I have taken that just do not fit into one specific category.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy Winter Solstice! May the Winter Solstice bring to you the promise of endless brand new days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":173068,"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":[511,1022,26,7641],"tags":[4101,13567,2459,4069,7638,2458,4018,6987,2457,4111,7640,13566],"class_list":["post-108923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-davis-county-utah","category-utah","category-weather-phenomena","tag-clouds","tag-first-day-of-winter","tag-halo-around-the-sun","tag-mountains","tag-optical-phenomena","tag-parhelion","tag-sky","tag-sun","tag-sun-dog","tag-weather","tag-weather-phenomena","tag-winter-solstice"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/sun-dog-feb-5-mia-mcpherson-7603.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-skP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":98353,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/12\/21\/happy-winter-solstice-2021\/","url_meta":{"origin":108923,"position":0},"title":"Happy Winter Solstice 2021!","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 21, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy Solstice and Yuletide! Hello Winter! Happy return to the light!","rel":"","context":"In "American Robins"","block_context":{"text":"American Robins","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/thrushes\/american-robins\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"American Robin against a winter sky, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/american-robin-winter-sky-mia-mcpherson-2812.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/american-robin-winter-sky-mia-mcpherson-2812.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/american-robin-winter-sky-mia-mcpherson-2812.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/american-robin-winter-sky-mia-mcpherson-2812.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":119272,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/12\/21\/happy-winter-solstice-2023\/","url_meta":{"origin":108923,"position":1},"title":"Happy Winter Solstice 2023","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 21, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I look forward to the Winter Solstice each year because it marks when the days start getting longer. On this day, I celebrate Mother Nature and our Mother Earth.","rel":"","context":"In "Miscellaneous"","block_context":{"text":"Miscellaneous","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/miscellaneous\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sunlight and shadows on the snowy Wasatch Mountains, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/wasatch-mountain-range-snowy-peaks-mia-mcpherson-5171.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/wasatch-mountain-range-snowy-peaks-mia-mcpherson-5171.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/wasatch-mountain-range-snowy-peaks-mia-mcpherson-5171.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/wasatch-mountain-range-snowy-peaks-mia-mcpherson-5171.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":108946,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/12\/22\/cloudy-and-gray-winter-solstice\/","url_meta":{"origin":108923,"position":2},"title":"Cloudy And Gray Winter Solstice","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 22, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"My Winter Solstice was cloudy and gray. I wandered down to my local pond to take in my first day of winter views of the Wasatch Mountains plus a few birds.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cloudy and gray Wasatch Mountains, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/wasatch-range-winter-solstice-mia-mcpherson-6440.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/wasatch-range-winter-solstice-mia-mcpherson-6440.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/wasatch-range-winter-solstice-mia-mcpherson-6440.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Solstice","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 22, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"To my delight I was able to take Great Blue Heron photos yesterday on the Winter Solstice that I found on the banks of the Bear River at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Winter Great Blue Heron landing on a log, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/great-blue-heron-bear-river-landing-mia-mcpherson-0605.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/great-blue-heron-bear-river-landing-mia-mcpherson-0605.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/great-blue-heron-bear-river-landing-mia-mcpherson-0605.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/great-blue-heron-bear-river-landing-mia-mcpherson-0605.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15250,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/06\/21\/happy-summer-solstice\/","url_meta":{"origin":108923,"position":5},"title":"Happy Summer Solstice","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy Summer Solstice.","rel":"","context":"In "Florida"","block_context":{"text":"Florida","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/florida\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Moonset on the Summer Solstice, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, 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