Five days ago I posted a series of images of a male Loggerhead Shrike feeding his mate (a ritual that is part of the pair bond between mated birds) and at the time I mentioned that I had photographed the same behavior the day before from the same birds. This is that sequence of images.
After eight years of photographing birds it’s not every day that I see something new but yesterday I did.
I started thinking about Sandhill Cranes for this post because a few days ago I drove through some of the mountain valleys in the Wasatch Range where I usually see these birds this time of year and they seemed to be totally absent. I hope that was just a happenstance of observation and not an actual fact. Earlier this spring I did see a lot of them migrating through.
When I first approached this adult Red-tailed Hawk twelve days ago on the north end of Antelope Island I had the distinct impression that it was enjoying the view over the Great Salt Lake from its lofty perch.
This spring I’ve had several opportunities to photograph the courtship “flight display” of the male Northern Mockingbird. While singing continuously from his perch he jumps almost straight up about six feet as he flaps his wings a couple of times which displays those conspicuous white wing patches and then parachutes down with wings open to the same perch. This performance is repeated every 30-60 seconds or so for an extended period of time.
Male Loggerhead Shrikes feed their mates beginning with the formation of pair bonds in early spring and such behavior continues throughout the incubation and nestling periods.
Antelope Island is crawling (and flying) with “bugs” right now. Mosquitoes are common, flying midges are thick as are the dreaded biting gnats (I call this the “itching and bitching” season).
Because of their somewhat limited breeding range I suspect that many have never seen a Long-billed Curlew chick so I decided to post this little cutie despite the partially obscured view of the bird.
Two behaviors indicative of pair bonds between mated pairs of Western (or Clark’s) Grebes are “Ratchet pointing” and “Dip-shaking”. The behaviors are often alternated, one after the other. I photographed both of them as they were performed by a pair of Western Grebes three days ago at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.
Six days ago on Antelope Island as I rounded a curve in the road I encountered this Burrowing Owl on a large rock with a clean setting and background. It was a cool morning and the sun had only recently come up so this bird was obviously enjoying the warming rays and showed no nervousness as I approached.
Western Grebes are almost exclusively fish-eaters but yesterday morning at Bear River MBR I photographed one consuming a crayfish.
Yesterday morning just after sunrise I was driving slowly on an isolated and deserted road looking for birds when I encountered a male Northern Harrier hunting along the road edge as it flew in the same direction I was traveling.
With its wings folded the plump, drab-plumaged Willet is brown and inconspicuous but a remarkable transformation takes place when those wings are opened.
Yesterday morning we were witness to a tense drama involving a badger and Long-tailed Weasels on Antelope Island. American badgers feed primarily on rodents (ground squirrels, pocket gophers, rats, mice and voles) which they often capture by digging out their burrows – the digging skills of badgers are legendary.
But on this day a close relative was on the menu.
Yesterday morning was a Western Kingbird bonanza along the Antelope Island causeway.
