![\"Adult](\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/sage-sparrow-ground-utah-mia-mcpherson-1517.jpg\" "\\"Adult")
Adult Sagebrush Sparrow – Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/1000, ISO 250, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 300mm, natural light <\/span><\/p>\nMy mother wishes she could win the lottery (who doesn’t?). There are people who wish they lived in a mansion and those who wish they wouldn’t get old. Santa gets his share of wish lists too.<\/p>\n
Seeing & photographing birds gives me joy, peace, excitement, thrills, and breath-taking moments.<\/p>\n
For instance, I wish the Sagebrush Sparrow above had been closer and had turned its head towards me more. I went out to Antelope Island State Park last fall with some non-photographers so I took my Nikkor 70-300mm VR with me instead of my longer lens.<\/p>\n
That was my mistake and I did not have enough focal length to get the shots I wanted. I wish I had taken the 200-400mm VR.<\/p>\n
Some of the birds on my wish list I have yet to photograph plus there are those I have photographed but the bird may have been too far away, or the light sucked, or I messed up the shots.<\/p>\n
My bird wish list for Utah, Montana, Idaho, and surrounding areas this spring and summer is too long to write out here but as long as I am wishing I would love to photograph Whooping Cranes, Garganeys, and a California Condor or two.<\/p>\n
I dream big and I’m always optimistic.<\/p>\n
On serious note though I wish I’d see some American Dippers because they are daring little birds who swim in fast flowing, rocky streams for food which fascinates me.<\/p>\n
Or Black-tailed Gnatcatchers which I have seen and photographed in southern Utah but I couldn’t get a single clear shot of the fast moving little bugger!<\/p>\n
Long-eared Owls have evaded me thus far too along with the handsome Great Gray Owls. Maybe I’ll spot the Great Gray in Montana some time or the tiny Northern Saw-whet Owl. One never knows.<\/p>\n
I wish that I’d have more opportunities with the always\u00a0impressive Ferruginous Hawks (I just love saying Ferruginous!) or Golden Eagles.<\/p>\n
Funny how coming across one poor image of a Sagebrush Sparrow has my head spinning today with wishes for more. But I know that as long as I am wishing for birds that I am rarely disappointed.<\/p>\n
Mia<\/p>\n
PS: One more wish, I wish there were enough hours in the day so I could get caught up on editing some of the thousands of images I’ve already taken!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some women wish for diamonds, some men wish for fast cars while young children might wish for a pony or a trip to Disney. Me? I wish for birds. Pretty simple, huh?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":160688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[511,27,1022,482,26],"tags":[4004,2438,970,4021,11978,4620,16899,2437,855,4195,16898,6179],"class_list":["post-2147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-sagebrush-sparrows","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-artemisiospiza-nevadensis","tag-autumn","tag-bird-photography","tag-desert-island","tag-fall","tag-list","tag-sagebrush-sparrow","tag-sparrow","tag-sparrows","tag-wish","tag-wish-list"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t