{"id":92004,"date":"2021-07-10T06:32:19","date_gmt":"2021-07-10T12:32:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=92004"},"modified":"2025-03-30T04:33:19","modified_gmt":"2025-03-30T09:33:19","slug":"twelve-years-in-utah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/07\/10\/twelve-years-in-utah\/","title":{"rendered":"Twelve Years In Utah"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MigratingMigrating phalarope murmuration<\/span><\/p>\n

Twelve years ago this morning I woke in Grand Island, Nebraska. I was a little more than 800 miles from my destination of Salt Lake City. I knew the road because I’d driven it many times before but every journey is different and this one was because I wasn’t just traveling through Utah I was migrating to my new home.<\/p>\n

Eight hundred miles was an easy days drive for me and I listened to the hum of my tires on the road as I enjoyed the changing scenery.<\/p>\n

After getting hit with a rock that cracked the windshield on my trusty, old red Jeep on I-80 I thought about stopping to get a new windshield but forged ahead. I watched that crack expand for more than 700 miles. By the time I drove down Parleys Canyon<\/span><\/a> and saw the Salt Lake Valley below the crack was about half the width of my windshield.<\/p>\n

The climate was different than the climate I’d left behind in Florida but Utah had what I wanted. It had mountains, deserts, the Great Salt Lake, marshes, red rocks, alpine lakes, forests, changing seasons, and most of all Utah had plenty of birds.<\/p>\n

I jumped right in learning how to identify the birds that were new to me and what the birds I was already familiar with did here in Utah. I also learned to identify their calls, observed their behaviors, and figured out what they ate.<\/p>\n

I immersed myself in their world. I got familiar with the plants, flowers, shrubs and trees plus the lay of the land. I very quickly became an expert at spotting birds in my new environment and knowing what to do to get photographs of them.<\/p>\n

During the twelve years I have been in Utah I have taken more than a million photos of the birds, animals, and scenery. I’ve had grand experiences and a few that I wish I could forget.<\/p>\n

Each and every time I go out into the field here I look for the expected and the unexpected and learn something new every day.<\/p>\n

I am where I want to be. For now.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see my bird photo galleries. For my other photos the sidebar has links to them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twelve years ago this morning I woke in Grand Island, Nebraska. I was a little more than 800 miles from my destination of Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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":""},"categories":[511,27,1022,6161,26,1140],"tags":[4004,4052,4247,4245,4122,4005,5993,5178,530,1637,3915,3824,6162,4287,11976,11975,274,2315,3996,6643],"class_list":["post-92004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-red-necked-phalaropes","category-utah","category-wilsons-phalaropes","tag-adult","tag-flight","tag-flock","tag-flocks","tag-flying","tag-great-salt-lake","tag-hypersaline-lake","tag-lake","tag-migration","tag-murmuration","tag-phalarope","tag-phalaropes","tag-phalaropus-lobatus","tag-phalaropus-tricolor","tag-phenomenon","tag-red-necked-phalaropes","tag-shorebirds-2","tag-summer-3","tag-water","tag-wilsons-phalaropes"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/phalarope-murmurations-mia-mcpherson-6422.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-nVW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":48917,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/10\/12\/red-necked-phalaropes-migration-and-the-great-salt-lake\/","url_meta":{"origin":92004,"position":0},"title":"Red-necked Phalaropes – Migration and the Great Salt Lake","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month I was able to photograph flocks of Red-necked Phalaropes on the Great Salt Lake when they were migrating through the area.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Red-necked Phalarope murmuration, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/red-necked-phalaropes-flight-mia-mcpherson-8599.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/red-necked-phalaropes-flight-mia-mcpherson-8599.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Red-necked Phalarope flock in flight, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/red-necked-phalarope-flock-flight-mia-mcpherson-2744.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/red-necked-phalarope-flock-flight-mia-mcpherson-2744.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/red-necked-phalarope-flock-flight-mia-mcpherson-2744.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/red-necked-phalarope-nonbreeding-mia-mcpherson-9376.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/red-necked-phalarope-nonbreeding-mia-mcpherson-9376.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/red-necked-phalarope-nonbreeding-mia-mcpherson-9376.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/red-necked-phalarope-nonbreeding-mia-mcpherson-9376.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":72188,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/07\/26\/flocks-of-phalaropes-in-flight-but-which-species\/","url_meta":{"origin":92004,"position":3},"title":"Flocks of Phalaropes In Flight – But Which Species?","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 26, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"It is the season of phalarope migration here in the Great Basin hub of the Pacific Flyway and one of the best places to view these shorebirds is along the causeway to Antelope Island State Park.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dorsal view of Phalaropes in flight - Which species?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/red-necked-and-wilsons-phalaropes-flight-mia-mcpherson-8544.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/red-necked-and-wilsons-phalaropes-flight-mia-mcpherson-8544.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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not far from the park entrance.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/wilsons-phalaropes-flock-mia-mcpherson-9519.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/wilsons-phalaropes-flock-mia-mcpherson-9519.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/wilsons-phalaropes-flock-mia-mcpherson-9519.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/wilsons-phalaropes-flock-mia-mcpherson-9519.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":47741,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/07\/19\/thousands-thousands-of-wilsons-phalaropes-over-the-great-salt-lake\/","url_meta":{"origin":92004,"position":5},"title":"Thousands & Thousands of Wilson’s Phalaropes over the Great Salt Lake","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I know how blessed I am to be able to see and photograph the spellbinding spectacle of thousands and thousands of Wilson's Phalaropes lift off and take flight en masse","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Thousands of Wilson's Phalaropes over the Great Salt 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