{"id":49939,"date":"2017-12-17T04:48:44","date_gmt":"2017-12-17T11:48:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=49939"},"modified":"2025-08-05T17:29:37","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T22:29:37","slug":"ring-billed-gulls-flying-in-a-december-snow-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/12\/17\/ring-billed-gulls-flying-in-a-december-snow-storm\/","title":{"rendered":"Ring-billed Gulls Flying in a December Snow Storm"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ring-billedRing-billed Gull skirmish in a snow storm – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 2500, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I never saw the sun shine yesterday, it was gray, gloomy, and snow was falling hard at times but that didn’t keep me home. I did go out to photograph some birds at a pond nearby. I wanted to capture birds with the snow falling and that is what I did. There were geese, ducks, grebes, coots and plenty of gulls at the pond.<\/p>\n

The California and Ring-billed Gulls were watching the Common Goldeneyes and Pied-billed Grebes closely and as soon as they saw that they had caught a crayfish the gulls dove at them and attempted to steal the crayfish, at times they were successful. In this photo the Ring-billed Gull on the left had stolen a crayfish from a goldeneye and was being chased by another gull, the chase went of for quite a while and I don’t know if the gull was able to eat the crayfish at the end or if it was forced to drop it into the pond.<\/p>\n

\"Ring-billedRing-billed Gull in flight in a snow storm – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 2500, +1.0 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I enjoy being able to go down to the pond in the winter and photograph the birds I find there because I know that when I get too cold I can be home, warm and have a hot drink in my hands in just a few minutes.<\/p>\n

Because the light was so low I pushed my ISO up high yesterday to get enough shutter speed to photograph the Ring-billed Gulls flying over the pond, diving towards the water and as they splashed down next to the diving ducks and grebes that they were trying to steal food from.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult Ring-billed Gull flying in a snow storm – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 1250, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I liked this image because of the color in the background, the pose of the Ring-billed Gull and of course all the falling snow.<\/p>\n

The light wasn’t great when I photographed these Ring-billed Gulls flying in a December snow storm but I had a great time with the gulls and the rest of the birds. It was much better than staying home.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

The light wasn’t great when I photographed these Ring-billed Gulls flying in a December snow storm but I had a great time with the gulls and the rest of the birds. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":151639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[4284,2544,4052,4122,3539,521,4264,1984,4468,4693,4050,4509,8018,373],"class_list":["post-49939","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-chase","tag-crayfish","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-gull","tag-gulls","tag-larus-delawarensis","tag-pond","tag-ring-billed-gull","tag-skirmish","tag-snow","tag-snow-storm","tag-urban","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-flight-snow-mia-mcpherson-5867.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-cZt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":61820,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/11\/29\/winter-weather-and-low-light-bird-photography-ahead\/","url_meta":{"origin":49939,"position":0},"title":"Winter Weather And Low Light Bird Photography Ahead","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 29, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I actually like photographing birds in a snow storm because the low light situations test my skills, the limits of my gear and the resulting photos often have a moody feeling to them.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ring-billed Gulls in a snow storm fighting over a crayfish, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/ring-billed-gulls-food-snow-storm-mia-mcpherson-5849.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/ring-billed-gulls-food-snow-storm-mia-mcpherson-5849.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/ring-billed-gulls-food-snow-storm-mia-mcpherson-5849.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/ring-billed-gulls-food-snow-storm-mia-mcpherson-5849.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":76226,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/12\/17\/serious-looking-ring-billed-gull-on-the-wing\/","url_meta":{"origin":49939,"position":1},"title":"Serious Looking Ring-billed Gull On The Wing","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 17, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I love photographing gulls. Whether they are feeding, resting, preening, fighting, calling, or in flight gulls are one of my favorite bird species to have in my viewfinder.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Serious looking Ring-billed Gull in flight, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-fluffy-clouds-mia-mcpherson-6946.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-fluffy-clouds-mia-mcpherson-6946.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-fluffy-clouds-mia-mcpherson-6946.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-fluffy-clouds-mia-mcpherson-6946.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":44287,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/01\/09\/ring-billed-gull-with-crayfish-in-the-snow\/","url_meta":{"origin":49939,"position":2},"title":"Ring-billed Gull with Crayfish in the Snow – Plus Our Crazy Weather in Northern Utah Right Now","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 9, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week while I was photographing birds at the local pond I saw a Ring-billed Gull catch a crayfish at the shoreline then it gobbled it up quickly before the rest of the gulls realized it had food.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ring-billed Gull with Crayfish, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-crayfish-snow-mia-mcpherson-2860.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-crayfish-snow-mia-mcpherson-2860.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-crayfish-snow-mia-mcpherson-2860.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-crayfish-snow-mia-mcpherson-2860.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":44677,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/01\/31\/portraits-of-ring-billed-gulls-in-a-snow-storm\/","url_meta":{"origin":49939,"position":3},"title":"Portraits of Ring-billed Gulls in a Snow Storm","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 31, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm glad I took these portraits of Ring-billed Gulls in a snow storm, they will remind me of a gray, cold, stormy January day when I was just crazy enough to sit and photograph birds as snowflakes fell from the sky.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Snow falling on a Ring-billed Gull, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-snow-storm-mia-mcpherson-6682.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-snow-storm-mia-mcpherson-6682.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-snow-storm-mia-mcpherson-6682.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-snow-storm-mia-mcpherson-6682.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":62268,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/12\/31\/winter-ring-billed-gull-in-a-whiteout\/","url_meta":{"origin":49939,"position":4},"title":"Winter Ring-billed Gull In A Whiteout","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 31, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The light was low, big flakes of snow were falling and the ice was covered in fluffy snow so that allowed me to take photos of a few birds that looked like they were posed on a blank, white canvas.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ring-billed Gull in a winter whiteout, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ring-billed-gull-snow-high-key-mia-mcpherson-8469.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-snow-high-key-mia-mcpherson-8469.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ring-billed-gull-snow-high-key-mia-mcpherson-8469.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ring-billed-gull-snow-high-key-mia-mcpherson-8469.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":48749,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/10\/03\/winter-ring-billed-gull-adult\/","url_meta":{"origin":49939,"position":5},"title":"Winter Ring-billed Gull Adult","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I photographed this adult Ring-billed Gull last winter at my local pond and loved the snow in the frame, the muted colors of the gull's plumage and the pops of color in the eye and bill of the gull.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Winter Ring-billed Gull, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-snow-mia-mcpherson-6602.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-snow-mia-mcpherson-6602.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-snow-mia-mcpherson-6602.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-snow-mia-mcpherson-6602.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\/49939","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=49939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}