Male Harrier Cruising The Causeway

I have a strong affinity for Northern Harriers ( a little secret that’s difficult to conceal, given the vanity plates on my pickup). And though I love to photograph either sex there’s just something about the adult males that has a special appeal for me. Part of that attraction is probably the relative rarity of the adult male colors since the juvenile colors of both sexes resemble that of the female.

The males are called the “gray ghost” for good reason.

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Hummingbirds, Butterflies And Rocky Mountain Bee Plant

Yesterday morning on Antelope Island hummingbirds were buzzing frantically over clumps of Rocky Mountain Bee Plant, a species of Cleome that produces copious amounts of nectar so it attracts hummingbirds, butterflies, bees and wasps. All four were present. As a biologist I enjoyed watching the natural processes at work here. The long, showy pollen tipped stamens and deeply buried nectar, when combined with the long bill of the bird, are the perfect combination to suit some of the biological needs of each species. The hummers were often covered with pollen.

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Odd Growths On The Face Of A Pronghorn

Earlier this month we encountered an unusual male Pronghorn on Antelope Island. Close inspection through our lenses revealed something that caught our attention – this animal had two strange-looking projections apparently growing out of the top of its muzzle. .

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Western Grebe – Dumping The Chick Load

At this age Western Grebe chicks are heavy-bodied, small headed, loud, awkward and demanding. They alternately ride on the back of each parent (back brooding) as the other adult rests or hunts for fish to feed to its family. At this stage the youngsters are good swimmers and there’s often not enough room on the parents back for all of the chicks to ride comfortably anyway so the parent uses an interesting strategy to “dump its load” into the water when it needs a break.

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Swainson’s Hawk Optical Illusion

Each time I look at this image, at first the wing above the head appears to be the birds right wing on the far side of the body. But then a few seconds later my brain tells me that’s impossible because the lower wing is obviously the right wing and it’s impossible (or at least highly unlikely) for the hawk to have two right wings.

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Screaming Dark Morph Ferruginous Hawk In Flight

Last week, partially in an effort to get away from the aggravations of the blog hosting problems I’d been having, I decided to make the extra long drive to extreme northern Utah in a quest for Swainson’s Hawks. We found quite a few and a delightful bonus was a plethora of Ferruginous Hawks in the same area.

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Changes To Feathered Photography

As many of you are keenly aware I’ve had long-term and unresolved service issues from my current hosting provider. It’s been stressful and a lot of extra work and frustration and I’ve finally had enough so I’m changing over to a new hosting provider.

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Loggerhead Shrike – Sagebrush Takeoff

During much of the year the breast and belly of these adult birds are white but you’ll notice that this shrike is “wearing to dark” – as the plumage becomes worn the darker bases of the feathers that we don’t usually see are exposed, so feathers in those areas now appear significantly darker than usual (as was documented and discussed in this post several weeks ago).

Since that discussion which included knowledgeable comments from others I’ve noticed the same phenomenon (wearing to dark) in several other species, including Chukars.

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Flaring Rough-legged Hawk

No, the Roughies haven’t returned early from their northern adventures. It’s just that I got to thinking about them yesterday while looking through some older images and was reminded of how handsome they are and how much I look forward to their appearance in the fall.

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Common Raven Covered With Spider Silk

Antelope Island is crawling with spiders this time of year. Huge spiders. Gazillions of them. They’re quite obvious everywhere you go on the north end of the island and they can be intimidating in the extreme.

Two days ago as I was leaving the island I found this raven on the west end of the causeway road. It looked pretty goofy looking from a distance and as I got closer I began to realize why.

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