{"id":122561,"date":"2024-03-04T04:09:28","date_gmt":"2024-03-04T11:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=122561"},"modified":"2025-05-08T08:26:25","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T13:26:25","slug":"ring-billed-gull-and-a-heart-shaped-snowflake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/03\/04\/ring-billed-gull-and-a-heart-shaped-snowflake\/","title":{"rendered":"Ring-billed Gull And A Heart Shaped Snowflake"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been six years since I took this photo of a Ring-billed Gull and a heart shaped snowflake in the middle of a winter snowstorm at my local pond.<\/p>\n

\"Ring-billedRing-billed Gull and a heart shaped snowflake \u2013 Nikon D500, f5.6, 1\/5000, ISO 800, +1.0 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Today is as good a day as any to share this image. It is supposed to snow again this morning. I wonder if the forecast is right.<\/p>\n

That morning started off snowy, and I went down to the pond hoping to get photos of birds with big fluffy snowflakes in them. I succeeded!<\/p>\n

When I photographed this Ring-billed Gull<\/span><\/a> I also took images of Canada Geese, one lone Snow Goose, along with the Mallards that are found at the pond practically all year round.<\/p>\n

I didn’t see the heart shaped snowflake above the gull’s head until I was at home looking at the images I had taken that morning. Somehow, I must have gotten sidetracked because I meant to share this photo soon after I had taken it. I was pretty busy going out into the field to look for subjects that month.<\/p>\n

Having areas close to home where I can find birds is great when the weather turns snowy. I can be there within minutes and be back home, having something warm to drink when I get cold.<\/p>\n

There might not be a great variety of birds at the pond, but at times, surprising birds can show up. For instance, last year, Common Loons showed up because the lakes and reservoirs in the high country were still ice-covered when the loons were migrating.<\/p>\n

I enjoy photographing gulls any time of the year. Having snowflakes in my photos of them makes me happy.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

It has been six years since I took this photo of a Ring-billed Gull and a heart shaped snowflake in the middle of a winter snowstorm at my local pond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":143462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,410,709,26],"tags":[4142,3539,521,14774,4067,4264,156,4046,4468,4050,8147,8284,4328,8018,373],"class_list":["post-122561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-ring-billed-gulls","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-utah","tag-close-up","tag-gull","tag-gulls","tag-heart-shaped","tag-immature","tag-larus-delawarensis","tag-low-light-2","tag-portrait","tag-ring-billed-gull","tag-snow","tag-snowflake","tag-snowing","tag-snowy","tag-urban","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ring-billed-gull-heart-snowflake-mia-mcpherson-5666.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-vSN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":119756,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/01\/16\/fun-with-a-goofy-immature-ring-billed-gull\/","url_meta":{"origin":122561,"position":0},"title":"Fun 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"Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Runty Ring-billed Gull on ice, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-small-utah-mia-mcpherson-2184.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-small-utah-mia-mcpherson-2184.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-small-utah-mia-mcpherson-2184.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-small-utah-mia-mcpherson-2184.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ring-billed-gulls-snowy-day-mia-mcpherson-8479.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ring-billed-gulls-snowy-day-mia-mcpherson-8479.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ring-billed-gulls-snowy-day-mia-mcpherson-8479.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ring-billed-gulls-snowy-day-mia-mcpherson-8479.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":62657,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/01\/15\/high-key-ring-billed-gull-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":122561,"position":3},"title":"High Key Ring-billed Gull Photos","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 15, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The longer I looked at the high key photos I took of this Ring-billed Gull in the snow the more I have enjoyed viewing them.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"High key Ring-billed Gull eating snow on a snowy morning, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ring-billed-gull-high-key-snow-mia-mcpherson-1869.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ring-billed-gull-high-key-snow-mia-mcpherson-1869.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ring-billed-gull-high-key-snow-mia-mcpherson-1869.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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It might be the first significant snowfall of this winter down in the valley.","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":"Ring-billed Gull on snow, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ring-billed-gull-whiteout-conditions-mia-mcpherson-1868.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ring-billed-gull-whiteout-conditions-mia-mcpherson-1868.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ring-billed-gull-whiteout-conditions-mia-mcpherson-1868.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ring-billed-gull-whiteout-conditions-mia-mcpherson-1868.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}