An unfortunate change in the posting schedule of Feathered Photography.
I’ve been blogging for over eleven years now and posting every day for almost the entire time. But circumstances won’t allow that schedule to continue because our bird populations have been negatively impacted so severely by human shortsightedness and greed.
- Mismanagement of the water feeding into the Great Salt Lake is a big part of it. So much of that water, the Bear River in particular, has been diverted and impounded for agricultural and industrial use that the lake began to shrink years ago. As a result, many of the prime habitats for birds have been negatively impacted.
- Our ongoing and severe anthropogenic drought has only accelerated the already rapid decline of the lake and its associated habitats. But the drought has also negatively impacted bird habitats in our nearby mountains and deserts – in fact in all of the places I photograph birds.
- Relentless development – including new housing tracts, expanding industry, new roads, new landfills and energy development (the list is endless) – has either eaten up prime habitats or brought intense human activity so close to them that birds have largely abandoned them.
As a result, birds have become much harder to find and especially to photograph well. These days, more often than not, I return from a long morning of attempting to photograph birds without a single photo I’m proud of. Yesterday morning in the mountains I didn’t take a single photo. Not even one.
I’m downhearted and discouraged. I could keep posting every day but in attempting to do so the overall quality of my posts would be significantly reduced for lack of quality bird photos and I refuse to allow that to happen. Readers don’t want to see sh***y bird photos and I don’t want to post them. And continually posting older photos, as I’ve already been doing too often for too long, has little appeal for me. Resting on my laurels – blah.
So, for the near future at least, I won’t be posting every day. My intention is to mostly post newer photos that I’m proud of, with fewer older photos in the mix. How often I post depends on what birds I find and what photos I manage to get. Hopefully, when and if the snow flies, things will improve. They often do.
In life I always try to roll with the punches but this one has me seeing stars.
Ron
I will miss your daily posts Ron, but will watch eagerly for new photos and words – and I’ll also start working my way back through previous years. Although I probably experience it on a lesser scale than you do, I share your sadness and concern over loss of habitat and decline of species. I can only hope that we realize the changes we are responsible for and start to stem the tide. Please know that your blog has brought me a lot of joy in the year or so I’ve been reading, and that I will continue to follow any updates you send our way.,
I haven’t posted before but I have enjoyed your blog for years and I am very grateful for the beautiful and inspiring photos and teaching points about birds and photography. I do wildlife photography in southern Oregon and the refuges that I frequent are drying up and the population of birds is declining. Keep up the good work! Thank you.
I understand your perspective especially well since I just returned to our forest home after spending time in overpopulated Florida :(. Why can’t we learn to control our human population and care for our Earth family? Thank you for your perspective, your photos, and your willingness to share. Best wishes and À bientôt
Very sad. The numbers have dropped here in western Massachusetts too. The numbers of birds and species aren’t the same as years past and I have been through 70 of them so far. Human stupidity and climate change pair up to make a very uncertain future for our wildlife. I applaud your decision and look forward to whatever you decide to post and whenever you decide to post. Our wildlife and feathered co-habitants are calling the shots for you. Thank you!
Dear Ron
I echo the sentiments of so many here….and the …well, at times it is just downright rage at homo sapiens and their greed and stupidity and blahblahblah politicians who do nothing about the environment. I hear you about how heart crushing it is to go out and not see birds where you used to see so many. It’s a true grief. I felt the same on a recent visit to a nearby wildlife refuge….it is hard to feel at all optimistic and I need to read Jane Goodall’s new book as well (that one of your folks posted about).
Please do take care of yourself and just want to say I hear you and feel for all of us who are losing so much as the days go by….I appreciate every bird that comes to my feeders knowing that they are a gift I can’t take for granted. Thank you for your blog and I will look forward to surprise posts in my inbox…be well.
There is nothing I can say that has not already been said from the sadness to the empathy to the frustration and rage and despair to the respect and appreciation for all that you and so many others do and have done and continue to do. This scenario is being played out everywhere by so many who care and who have worked so hard for so long to prevent just this sort of thing from happening. 💔
I appreciate your openness and communication with us readers. I also appreciate that you’re dedicated to posting quality posts and not posting for the sake of posting.
In the meantime, this (hopefully short) “break” will give me more time to read posts from previous years until I catch up!
Boy, you’ve got your work cut out for you, Amy! There’s 3,568 of those older posts… 🙂 And some of the early ones weren’t particularly well written.
I actually discovered your blog in 2019 and have been following your daily posts since then. I felt a bit shy commenting at first, but at the same time I felt I ought to express my gratitude for the beautiful photos and for broadening my perspectives on what it is to be an ethical photographer.
I don’t know much about cameras, but I can appreciate the work that goes into capturing just a snapshot of a bird’s life and sharing it with likeminded people.
I used to have this naïve notion that all those brilliant photographs that garner praise and awards and such, was a result of the photographer waiting it out for hours in rough weather conditions. As far as cheating goes, there’s photoshop – until you talked about baiting. Now it makes sense. Sometimes a perfect shot looks a little too perfect…
Your respect for the birds and wildlife, dignity, and honesty when you do touch up your pictures through the years is what led me to read post after post after post. 🙂
I’m currently almost done with 2015’s entries and will start on 2016 in less than a month if I continue to read a couple posts a day.
Reading and enjoying the birds and their eccentric and sometimes silly behavior, has become part of my break at work. It’s become my way of “going outside” when I’m chained to my desk. haha
❤
This troubling post dovetails–albeit all too unpleasantly–with several opinions I’ve seen in the popular scientific literature lately regarding humanity’s extinction debt. Several authorities opined there that the rate at which humans are consuming resources and degrading habitat almost certainly has us–as a currently dominant species–literally dead men/women walking. A species only lives beyond its means for a limited time. Humans are clearly already deep in extinction debt. Our lavish, unseemly spending habits–regarding the natural world–continue unabated as you clearly point out regarding your own Utah stomping grounds. It is the same where I live as well.
Regarding those “bozos”…as a former public school teacher I often chide myself for the poor job I must have done to have been a part of unleashing so many myopic, colossally ignorant “policy makers” upon the world.
As for the real heart of your blog site–the world of wild birds–I, for one, don’t mind looking at your older shots though I can understand how frustrating it must be to be skunked for fresh ones in places you once found full of potential images.
Your site, photos and posts are obviously a serious labor of great love. Thanks for all you’ve already done.
Please continue to post and write only what feels best.
Ron,
Understood. I have seen the same changes since I have been following your blog and trying to find and photograph birds here in Utah (mostly trying to follow your pattern). I hope things change but I am afraid they won’t. I will look forward to your “less-than-daily” blogs and photos. Hopefully I’ll see you out and about.
Stephen
I’m sad for you… I’m sad for us and especially sad for our wildlife. With the drought, wildfires and humans I sometimes wonder is it going to get better…
Headline news the other day that someone was mutilating small animals but come to find out it’s coyotes. People are not use to having them in their neighborhoods. Wildlife trying to survive.
I’ll look forward to seeing Feathered Photography in my inbox😊
I’m so sorry to read this. I’ve been having the same experience where I bird every day on a river in the Northern California Coast Range. It is heartbreaking how quiet the mornings are this year compared to last, and last year compared to the year before, etc. I muttered to myself “past the tipping point” this morning. Here it’s big cannabis grows illegally diverting water, altering the landscape and habitats, and running loud generators to keep their greenhouses humming. My only solace is that apparently homo sapiens has no interest in its own survival and once gone nature will rebound.
I’m saddened but not surprised by this news. Hang in there, Ron, and do what you’ve got to do. We’ll be here.
Hi Ron! I am so close to tears right now. Would it be okay if when you do post if some of us could make a request of a photo or photos from your files? I haven’t been watching & reading your Blog for that long so I know I have missed many incredible posts. Hugs Ron!
Oh, Ron, I’m a wild bird rehabilitator. I get it. I take about 350 troubled birds into care each year, most of them damaged by the actions of humans. Of course my efforts are much like bailing out a sinking boat with a thimble. Nevertheless, I have faith that Ma Nature will continue. When any one population overreaches to the detriment of all the others, some circumstance will come along to whack it back. If the current virus doesn’t eventually do us in, there are plenty more out there. If we’re clever enough to resist them, we’ll still have the issues of feeding our ever-burgeoning masses, of obtaining enough clean oxygen and water to sustain ourselves. If any humanoid species lives through this evolutionary bottleneck, it will have evolved beyond our habits of greed and violence. Our progeny will be more cooperative and able to self-control. Or perhaps we will carry on until most of the life forms on earth, including ourselves, is extinguished. When that happens, the Great Mother will get busy evolving new life forms. At this point, I’m glad I won’t see what happens in the next 50 years. Thank you for all you have shown and taught me! You have brought me joy!
Ron – While trying to process your sad news, I just spent 15 minutes watching a young Sharp-shin hawk after his unsuccessful attempt to grab breakfast from a little flock of house sparrows. And I realized I was seeing all the things you have so beautifully documented and taught us – the rousing, the wing/leg/tail stretches, the markings of his first-year plumage, the little tree branches in front of him blocking a smooth getaway, his prep for takeoff, his takeoff straight towards me (smooth, smooth, branches be damned!)….
Our little central Washington town is experiencing the same alarming growth – every day another farm has a “for sale-development opportunity” sign on the fence. And our backyard birds have seemingly been reduced to the sparrow flock and a few finches.
I worry for this beautiful little hawk. Thank you for teaching me how to see him better. Thank you for your artistry, your ethics, your passion for the land and its creatures. And I’ll open email each AM, hoping, hoping… Take care, Professor.
Watching the lake dry up has been heartbreaking. We have a beautiful view of it from the east side of North Salt Lake. It’s always been one of my favorite things about living up here. It’s so sad to see how much of it is gone.
Sending you hugs Ron. Your sadness is so poignant. Humans can be so disrespectful and harmful in ways not understood. Please use this time to get your cataract eye surgery. A new viewpoint is in order!
best to you friend
K 🙂
Others have already very eloquently expressed my own feelings about how you/we have come to this. I’m 💔 for all of it and wish you well until we “meet” again. Take care, Ron.
Everyone, I appreciate your outpouring of thoughtful and kind words more than I can express. I wish all of humankind was like my blog followers, I truly do.
Well, I could start my own bird blog titled “Worst Bird Photography Ever” and have 0 followers. Just trying to insert a bit of levity in what is sad but not surprising news. Withdrawal from my daily perusal of Feathered Photography will leave a hole in my morning routine, as it will for many. Just don’t stop completely; you’re FP family would be devastated. Geez, just when I was beginning to know Utah and Montana birds (even better than birds here).
My heart breaks for you and for those of us who comprise your tribe here. I will watch for you. I will also continue to do what I can in my area to fight for our environment.
Ron, as I am sure you expected All of your viewers are with you and we all appreciate everything you have done and everything you might still be able to do .
For me personally I have enjoyed both your photography and the education that you provide with your photos.
I look forward to whatever it is you can still do!
[Insert motivational pep-talk phrase of your choosing here 😁]
I’ve really enjoy your posts & also am very sad about the decline in wildlife. I did have one question. We are actually planning a short trip to the Toolee Utah area and I believe that is in your neck of the woods. I was wondering if you would share any “best” areas we could photograph wildlife while we are there. I have never been there before, we only have a few days, but always like to take advantage of any time I can get especially in a new area. Looking forward to seeing more of your wonderful photos!
I will miss the posts but understand. I have not been taking my camera out often either, my results have been the same as yours. I have the added guilt of driving long distances using fuel, polluting the air stuck in traffic at a stand sill. Unless the outing has a planed hike, bike ride, bird release or trip to help my parents I have not been going out for photography.
Do you like any of Jane Goodall’s works? I listened to her book on Audible.
The Book of Hope A Survival Guide for Trying Times. It was very helpful for me in 2021. Plus I find her voice so calming. Perhaps you have time to sit and listen while culling over photos or driving. Those are my times for audible books.
Ron,
This is grim and disheartening. I’m so sorry. I vacillate between feeling deeply sad and very angry about humans’ vast, unrelenting decimation of the natural world. We are well past the tipping point. But I’m preaching to the choir.
That said, I have faith that your curiosity, love of wild things, keen eye, and big ole lens(es) will continue to record beautiful images that delight and inspire.
Your admirer,
Kathryn
I am sad. I am sorry. And I am totally peeved (insert any stronger word you fancy) at the stupidity and greed of too much of our species.
And I look forward to seeing anything you care to post which meets your exacting standards.
Your posts have meant so much to me since I discovered your blog about a year ago. Thank you for all the beautiful pictures, for the accompanying copy, and for the inspiring tutorial in successful self-actualization. I will continue to look forward to posts because I’m confident you will find occasional bonanzas of birdlife just crying for your lens to honor and preserve them with your photos. Thanks again!
We will all look forward to whatever you can do. This is indeed a sad and worrisome time we now live in. And it’s sad to realize that those growing up now don’t have any personal reference to what the natural world was once like. I remember driving down the highway and needing to stop to clean the windshield free of the many insects that hit the window. Now the window remains clean from the lack of insects. There are birds I seldom see now that were once common. But this is the “normal” for today’s kids so it’s hard to instill the great sense of loss that many of us feel. But they are our hope and we need them to learn and care. Your blog is one of those learning tools so we all look forward to whatever you can do. If it has to be fewer posts, so be it but your quality and educational information is important and we will all appreciate whatever you can do. Stay well.
Oh, dear. I’m so sorry, Ron, and I understand completely… I can’t express my feelings as well as most of your blog friends have done, but i feel the same sadness and discouragement and (even at my age) outrage as they do at the state of affairs on the planet. I’ve felt this way for decades now. Dealing with my feelings for so long I have come to accept that there will be change, but still I’m compelled to do my small part in trying not to hurt the Earth. Your blog has always been an encouragement to enjoy what I see every day, and to wonder at all the things you see that I never will, and to learn things that amaze me. We’ll all miss your daily presence. I’ll be grateful when i see your emails arrive. Stay well, every day.
This is very disheartening news, Ron, but not entirely surprising given the reports you’ve shared over the past many months, especially about Great Salt Lake. It has been a joy to get your emails every day, and I hope you see a rebound in birds over the winter. As Marti (and The Byrds) said, one has to wonder, “When will we ever learn?”
Well heck, I am sad to see your post this morning. I think the others have posted what I feel about how hard it is to find birds and post and tell your stories about them. I have noticed in my neck of the woods that the birds are fewer. It is a sad time. Hope you find other things and places to go to keep you busy when not posting here. Take care and have a Merry Christmas.
Your post and the comments leave me with tears in my eyes. So hard to hear of the lack of birds everywhere! The So. Calif. beaches I frequent have had hardly any winter birds for several years now.
Very sad Ron. Really sorry to see you having to put so much effort into trying to provide us with outstanding bird photos morning after morning. I think we all look forward to your post every morning, but we can adjust to whatever is best for you. “The only constant is change.”
A sad day indeed. Thank you for all you’ve done. You and the birds will be missed.
I will miss you and the beauty you have brought to my world everyday. I wish you well. I keep hoping that humans will put forth the effort to save “nature” the planet.
I will still check everyday for a post.
Take Care,
Kaye
A sad state of affairs, indeed. Makes me think of a line from the old Pete Seeger song, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”
When will they ever learn?
“ In life I always try to roll with the punches but this one has me seeing stars.”
Reading your post today felt like a gut punch, and I don’t really know how to say this… Don’t get me wrong, I very much enjoy your posts and photos, but…) the gut punch is the REASON you will not be posting every day, which is a personal, tragic (as someone else already said) result of humans (overall) not caring for our environment. So this is one more thing impacted by our destruction. It sort of brings it home. I am usually optimistic, but lately I have tended to agree with your and others’ thoughts that the politicians are not going to address the environment in a meaningful way.
My best wishes to you as you figure out how to roll with this punch. And I look forward to your blog, whenever you do post.
It seems that so much of the wildlife on the planet is put in last place to everything human desires and greed for today. I’m sorry for the decision you feel you must make. Your art and knowledge will be missed by many.
This makes me sad, Ron, but clearly you are right that keeping up a daily bird photo blog (without extensive, very polluting travel) is too challenging at this time. Mediocre photos are not the answer.
I read an opinion column recently that bemoaned America’s declining fertility rate, i.e. lower rate of births per 100,000. I wondered if the author was blind to the rising world population, our (yes, it includes me) consumptive (and damaging) lifestyles, and how this is impacting life (plants and animals) on Earth.
I will miss the daily blog. As a retired biology instructor I have enjoyed seeing your images and reading your blog. I will continue to watch for your posts. It is disheartening that the things we spent our lives studying and trying to protect are rapidly disappearing.
3 Billion birds lost since 1970 – https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/bring-birds-back/
And, the majority of ‘us’ were surprised to learn this. A complete disconnect with nature.
I enjoy your blog because it is a connection. Unfortunanetly, your library of shots is also a direct connection to the decline. Time based comparisons would make a compelling story. A very sad & disheartening one. But, awareness can often bring interest and that may bring caring.
I will continue to look forward to your posts regardless of timing.
I know exactly what you are describing in this current post. Here in Denver/Front Range Colorado the situation is the same. It is a tragedy what has happened here in your Eastern neighbor State. I have lived here in the Greater Denver area since 1976 and in the past 15-20 years it has been a steady decline in quality of life and I am just too old to make any major moves at this point. I will keep an eye out for your email notifications to brighten up my Birding Life. 🥰
WAHHH! ;( I DO get it BUT luv my morning fix of “sunshine” and education.
Hwy 2 closed between Browning & Cut Bank – fires. Also have one just S of Great Falls and in other places. Winds horrific….. 🙁
My heart is heavy for you, for our birds and for our environment. I have felt this sadness before, when the large tree in your yard had to be removed meaning that the bald eagle that visited that tree would not return. Those of us who love your photos have only to wait in anticipation for your next email. So I grieve for your love of the adventure, for the forays to your favorite refuges, for your passion for photography of birds and the compromises you are having to make. Bird populations are down everywhere but that is no consolation for you as drought continues and humans and wildlife pay the consequences.
This makes me so sad. What a loss for everyone. I have not been privileged to live in or visit your area other than Arizona for a brief time.. Your posts allow me to see birdsI can only dream of seeing in SW Ohio. Such a tragedy
Thanks, Connie. It sure is.
As a kid in the 1940’s in New Jersey I especially remember the spring warbler migration. Trees were only beginning to leaf out and the bare branches were sometimes festooned with several warbler species. Fast forward to the changes I have seen in my local Florida patch. Without question the numbers of warblers and other neotropical migrants have decreased. Bees and butterflies are much less numerous and diverse– some butterfly species seem to have disappeared. Residents have mosquito spray systems in their back yards which disperse insecticide day and night all year round. Very sad indeed.
“Residents have mosquito spray systems in their back yards which disperse insecticide day and night all year round.”
Geez, that’s a new one for me, Kenneth. I’m continually amazed by human stupidity.
I am amazed every single day that so many are oblivious to the state of the world. Thank you for your ongoing contributions in reminding us of both the beauty and the catastrophes right in front of us. Keep raising your voice – and your camera lens.
I’ll keep trying, Kathleen. Thanks for the encouragement.
Sad and Sorry that it has come to this! I have noticed the landscape around me change as well, as humans destroy and pave everything. We are indeed on the brink… and I can’t see it stopping. I will miss your frequent Blog entries. Although I don’t always comment I have looked forward to your daily posts for years now
I don’t see it stopping either, Joanne.
Among other things that would take at least some foresight and integrity in our legislature but I might as well believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.
Yup, I know what you are going through. One would think living in VT we wouldn’t have the same problem, but we do.
I have noticed a lowering of bird populations overall, do in part through human expansion and building. But, I am also concerned that human desire for a bug free environment is causing serious problems with bird populations that depend on insects for their survival.
I feel very fortunate that I was born at a time when bird populations were a ton larger than they are now. Unfortunately I do not foresee a bright future for our wildlife.
“Unfortunately I do not foresee a bright future for our wildlife.”
Nor do I, Dick. It’s so very sad. And tragic.
Thanks for your frankness, Ron. I, too, deeply regret that things have come to this sorry state. Nevertheless, you facing it squarely certainly helps me take in just how degraded your beloved wildlands have become. Thank you for your unfailing efforts to bring us the best photos possible on a daily basis for the past 11 years! And I will look forward to seeing what you post on those days when you take yet another wonderful photo.
Much appreciated, Alison.
Ron,
I am very sorry to hear this. Although I no longer live near the Great Salt Lake, I’m still deeply concerned about it and the surrounding area. I thought maybe the Utah Legislature might come to their senses when it became so exceedingly clear that the whole system was in peril, but as we should know by now it is impossible to underestimate those bozos.
And personally I will miss having your excellent blog to get me through my first cup of coffee every morning.
Ken
“it is impossible to underestimate those bozos”
Perfectly said, Ken. You reach a point where you’d think even they would see the light, only to be disappointed once again.
When I saw the headline of this post, I was worried that you were having health issues, so I was, at first, relieved to read the post, but ultimately, this makes me extremely sad and also very angry. I am going to resist a political rant, but you can probably hear me in your head.
“I was worried that you were having health issues”
‘Only’ my mental health, Sue. And I had a hard time avoiding the political rant you mention on today’s post.
Ron, I am so very sorry for our collective loss in the habitat of the birds you love and have so brilliantly captured in photos. I share your sense of heart-wrenching loss. Perhaps these words from Mary Oliver, the poet, may give all of us a moment to reflect: “To live in this world, you must be able to do three things: To love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.” Elizabeth
Thanks, Elizabeth. But I certainly hope the time hasn’t come to “let it go”. Not yet.
Yes, I am hoping with you, too.
Very sad, you’re a canary in our environment.
Probably.