{"id":18480,"date":"2015-01-08T05:37:12","date_gmt":"2015-01-08T12:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=18480"},"modified":"2025-05-19T09:35:55","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T14:35:55","slug":"mercur-canyon-mountain-bluebird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/01\/08\/mercur-canyon-mountain-bluebird\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercur Canyon Mountain Bluebird"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday while looking for birds to photograph I was enchanted by this Mercur Canyon Mountain Bluebird male while in Tooele County, Utah.<\/p>\n

\"MercurMercur Canyon Mountain Bluebird – Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

He was fairly cooperative and perched on top of a Utah Juniper for a few minutes allowing me close looks at him through my lens. I don’t see many Mountain Bluebirds here during the winter but it really hasn’t been much of a winter here so far.<\/p>\n

Mercur Canyon is famous for the mining ghost town of Mercur<\/a><\/span> further up the road than where I photographed this bluebird. During this time of the year when the sun is low on the southern horizon the sunlight never fully reaches the bottom of the canyon for much of the way so the opportunities for photographing birds in nice light are diminished.<\/p>\n

I’m glad this bluebird was perched where the light was lovely.<\/p>\n

Life is good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

P.S. Mercur and Mercur Canyon were also known as Lewiston and Lewiston Canyon.<\/p>\n

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

Yesterday while looking for birds to photograph I was enchanted by this Mercur Canyon Mountain Bluebird male while in Tooele County, Utah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":145099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,2998,1369,358,26],"tags":[4004,4021,5933,4880,3940,3914,4062,228,4069,4104,4339,3844,4881],"class_list":["post-18480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-mercur-canyon","category-mountain-bluebirds","category-tooele-county","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-bird-photography","tag-bluebird","tag-bluebirds","tag-canyon","tag-juniper","tag-male","tag-mountain-bluebird","tag-mountains","tag-perched","tag-sialia-currucoides","tag-thrush","tag-thrushes"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-male-mercur-mia-mcpherson-3544.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-4O4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":44963,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/02\/14\/mercur-canyon-rock-squirrel\/","url_meta":{"origin":18480,"position":0},"title":"Mercur Canyon Rock Squirrel","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I didn't have much luck at all with birds yesterday in the west desert canyons but I did spot and photograph a Rock Squirrel in Mercur Canyon.","rel":"","context":"In "Mercur Canyon"","block_context":{"text":"Mercur Canyon","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/mercur-canyon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Rock Squirrel on rocks in Mercur Canyon, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rock-squirrel-on-rocks-mia-mcpherson-5629.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rock-squirrel-on-rocks-mia-mcpherson-5629.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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"Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Mountain Bluebird with adult male watching over it, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-adult-mia-mcpherson-4334.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-adult-mia-mcpherson-4334.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-adult-mia-mcpherson-4334.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/mountain-bluebird-juvenile-adult-mia-mcpherson-4334.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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McPherson","date":"March 8, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"While up in Mercur Canyon I caught a flash of browns and grays on top of a rock and realized I was seeing the Rock Squirrel I photographed on the same slope last month.","rel":"","context":"In "Mercur Canyon"","block_context":{"text":"Mercur Canyon","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/mercur-canyon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Rock Squirrel on lichen covered rocks, Mercur Canyon, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rock-squirrel-mia-mcpherson-1880.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rock-squirrel-mia-mcpherson-1880.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rock-squirrel-mia-mcpherson-1880.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 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