{"id":26835,"date":"2015-07-22T05:14:05","date_gmt":"2015-07-22T11:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=26835"},"modified":"2026-01-15T15:38:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T21:38:31","slug":"west-desert-wanderings-thrashers-and-hawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/07\/22\/west-desert-wanderings-thrashers-and-hawks\/","title":{"rendered":"West Desert Wanderings – Thrashers and Hawks"},"content":{"rendered":"

I went wandering in the West Desert of Utah yesterday because the views are always great and because I hoped to find a few birds.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult Sage Thrasher with prey in Tooele County<\/span><\/p>\n

I went up a canyon and the first birds I was able to get close enough to were Sage Thrashers. The adult had a grasshopper in its bill and it seemed like it wanted the young bird to fly to it.<\/p>\n

\"YoungYoung Sage Thrasher on barbed wire<\/span><\/p>\n

The young Sage Thrasher could fly but it didn’t seem interested in flying to the adult instead it flew up to the fence then back to the ground…<\/p>\n

\"YoungYoung Sage Thrasher perched on a fence post<\/span><\/p>\n

Then back up to a fence post. The adult flew further away from the young bird and before long the young bird flew after it.<\/p>\n

\"UnderUnder the watchful eye of a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk<\/span><\/p>\n

Further up into the canyon I spotted a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk not far from a nest where earlier this year I saw chicks. This juvenile might be from that nest or it might not. I saw another immature Red-tailed Hawk higher up the canyon but it was younger than the one pictured above and in poor light.<\/p>\n

I did see a family of Bullock’s Orioles in another canyon but they took off before I could get focused on them.<\/p>\n

It was lovely wandering in the West Desert and taking images of thrashers and hawks.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my Sage Thrasher photos plus facts and information about this species.\u00a0Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Red-tailed Hawk photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I went wandering in the West Desert of Utah yesterday because the views are always great and because I hoped to find a few birds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":162890,"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":[27,449,103,1316,358,26,1314],"tags":[4004,2663,4098,4033,4169,4067,3914,4071,4164,4106,153,4209,4003,4613,735,4088],"class_list":["post-26835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-red-tailed-hawks","category-sage-thrashers","category-stansbury-mountains-utah","category-tooele-county","category-utah","category-west-desert-utah","tag-adult","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-desert","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-immature","tag-juniper","tag-juvenile","tag-oreoscoptes-montanus","tag-prey","tag-raptors","tag-red-tailed-hawk","tag-sage-thrasher","tag-thrasher","tag-thrashers","tag-west-desert"],"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