Eastern Kingbird Adult And Fledgling – A Question Of Behavior
Yesterday morning at Farmington Bay I photographed a subtle but interesting bit of kingbird behavior that caught my attention and piqued my curiosity.
Category: Birds
Posing Yellowlegs On A Rock Stage
On a visit to Glover Pond last week I found this Greater Yellowlegs resting on a rock surrounded by relatively clear, still water which I thought made a nice setting for the bird (even though the rock also provided some compositional challenges).
Rabbits, Ticks And Family History
Rabbits, both wild and domestic, are notorious for heavy tick infestations and the cottontails and jackrabbits on Antelope Island share that miserable fate.
Great Blue Heron Landing Series (13 images)
Yesterday morning I decided to break with one of my long-standing traditions and brave the potential crowds by visiting one of the more popular birding sites in the area on a weekend – Glover Pond near Farmington Bay WMA. One of my goals was to locate and photograph the Little Blue Heron that has been hanging around in the area for the last couple of weeks. That bird is causing a lot of excitement in the birding and photography communities because it’s so far out of its range. I never did find that heron but this one more than made up for it.
The Shrike And The Grasshopper (and noticing the “little things”)
I make every effort in the field to “read” the behavior of my avian subjects. Sometimes I’m right and sometimes I’m not but either way it’s a learning experience for me and my percentage of accuracy does seem to be improving. One of the payoffs can be better bird photographs for a variety of reasons.
Swainson’s Hawk Underwing Plumage Patterns
Typically I tend to not be a fan of flight shots where the bird is already past me but though this Swainson’s Hawk has already done so I keep coming back to the image for a combination of reasons.
Ravens, Crows And An Unfortunate Decision By The Utah Wildlife Board
I’ve always loved ravens. I appreciate their intelligence, their adaptability and their association with myth and mystery in human folklore. I also enjoy their playfulness. But here in Utah the future is not looking bright for our two largest corvid species, the Common Raven and the American Crow.
Female Mountain Bluebird Removing Fecal Sac From Nestbox
The nesting season of Mountain Bluebirds in Montana’s Centennial Valley was delayed this year due to a late spring cold snap so during my visit there last week some of them were still feeding youngsters in the nest boxes. I’ve found it to be relatively easy to photograph the parent birds on top of the nest boxes with insects for the chicks in their beaks but catching them in flight as they leave the nest with fecal sacs is another story altogether.
An Elk Calf In Distress
This past Sunday morning as I crested a very large hill (Monida Hill) at the west end of the Centennial Valley I noticed an elk calf below me and behind a fence. As soon as I stopped my pickup and the road noise quit I could tell it was in distress from the almost constant noise it was making. I don’t know what to call that sound so I’ll simply refer to it as a “call”. The sound was pitiful and almost heartbreaking to hear.
Swainson’s Hawk In Flight
This is the time of year that Swainson’s Hawks usually begin to converge on the Centennial Valley to feast on grasshoppers and believe me the area produces grasshoppers in abundance – probably more of them than I’ve ever seen elsewhere (and I grew up on a Montana farm where grasshoppers were unfortunately one of our most successful crops).
This Is Why They’re Called “Stilts”
If you thought that stilts have the longest legs relative to body size of all bird species you’d be wrong. But not by much. That distinction belongs to flamingos but stilts come in a close second.
Female Sapsucker – A Miscalculation At The Nest-hole
Sapsuckers must be nimble fliers to negotiate access to their nest-hole several hundred times per day during the nesting season – especially if the tree their nest is in leans toward the hole. Usually it’s no problem for them but one time I did photograph the female as she stumbled.
Landing Red-tailed Hawk
This image goes back into my archives about as far back as they go. It was taken on October 1, 2007 – just a few months after I became serious about my photography. I was still shooting with my first digital camera, the Canon Rebel XTi which I still have. It’s an entry-level camera and I still remember what the camera salesman said when I told him that I was planning on mounting that small camera onto a huge Canon 500 mm lens – “well, it will work but don’t you think it’ll look a little silly?”
Sapsucker Nest-hole Attracts Nosy Neighbors
The Williamson’s Sapsucker nest-hole that I photographed earlier this summer was apparently of huge interest to a variety of other species in the area.
Juvenile Magpie With Feathers Blowing Away In The Breeze
Earlier this month as I was watching this juvenile (relatively short tail) Black-billed Magpie through my lens on Antelope Island I didn’t expect anything interesting to happen except for a possible take-off shot.
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Posing Yellowlegs On A Rock Stage
On a visit to Glover Pond last week I found this Greater Yellowlegs resting on a rock surrounded by relatively clear, still water which I thought made a nice setting for the bird (even though the rock also provided some compositional challenges).
Rabbits, Ticks And Family History
Rabbits, both wild and domestic, are notorious for heavy tick infestations and the cottontails and jackrabbits on Antelope Island share that miserable fate.
Great Blue Heron Landing Series (13 images)
Yesterday morning I decided to break with one of my long-standing traditions and brave the potential crowds by visiting one of the more popular birding sites in the area on a weekend – Glover Pond near Farmington Bay WMA. One of my goals was to locate and photograph the Little Blue Heron that has been hanging around in the area for the last couple of weeks. That bird is causing a lot of excitement in the birding and photography communities because it’s so far out of its range. I never did find that heron but this one more than made up for it.
The Shrike And The Grasshopper (and noticing the “little things”)
I make every effort in the field to “read” the behavior of my avian subjects. Sometimes I’m right and sometimes I’m not but either way it’s a learning experience for me and my percentage of accuracy does seem to be improving. One of the payoffs can be better bird photographs for a variety of reasons.
Swainson’s Hawk Underwing Plumage Patterns
Typically I tend to not be a fan of flight shots where the bird is already past me but though this Swainson’s Hawk has already done so I keep coming back to the image for a combination of reasons.
Ravens, Crows And An Unfortunate Decision By The Utah Wildlife Board
I’ve always loved ravens. I appreciate their intelligence, their adaptability and their association with myth and mystery in human folklore. I also enjoy their playfulness. But here in Utah the future is not looking bright for our two largest corvid species, the Common Raven and the American Crow.
Female Mountain Bluebird Removing Fecal Sac From Nestbox
The nesting season of Mountain Bluebirds in Montana’s Centennial Valley was delayed this year due to a late spring cold snap so during my visit there last week some of them were still feeding youngsters in the nest boxes. I’ve found it to be relatively easy to photograph the parent birds on top of the nest boxes with insects for the chicks in their beaks but catching them in flight as they leave the nest with fecal sacs is another story altogether.
An Elk Calf In Distress
This past Sunday morning as I crested a very large hill (Monida Hill) at the west end of the Centennial Valley I noticed an elk calf below me and behind a fence. As soon as I stopped my pickup and the road noise quit I could tell it was in distress from the almost constant noise it was making. I don’t know what to call that sound so I’ll simply refer to it as a “call”. The sound was pitiful and almost heartbreaking to hear.
Swainson’s Hawk In Flight
This is the time of year that Swainson’s Hawks usually begin to converge on the Centennial Valley to feast on grasshoppers and believe me the area produces grasshoppers in abundance – probably more of them than I’ve ever seen elsewhere (and I grew up on a Montana farm where grasshoppers were unfortunately one of our most successful crops).
This Is Why They’re Called “Stilts”
If you thought that stilts have the longest legs relative to body size of all bird species you’d be wrong. But not by much. That distinction belongs to flamingos but stilts come in a close second.
Female Sapsucker – A Miscalculation At The Nest-hole
Sapsuckers must be nimble fliers to negotiate access to their nest-hole several hundred times per day during the nesting season – especially if the tree their nest is in leans toward the hole. Usually it’s no problem for them but one time I did photograph the female as she stumbled.
Landing Red-tailed Hawk
This image goes back into my archives about as far back as they go. It was taken on October 1, 2007 – just a few months after I became serious about my photography. I was still shooting with my first digital camera, the Canon Rebel XTi which I still have. It’s an entry-level camera and I still remember what the camera salesman said when I told him that I was planning on mounting that small camera onto a huge Canon 500 mm lens – “well, it will work but don’t you think it’ll look a little silly?”
Sapsucker Nest-hole Attracts Nosy Neighbors
The Williamson’s Sapsucker nest-hole that I photographed earlier this summer was apparently of huge interest to a variety of other species in the area.
Juvenile Magpie With Feathers Blowing Away In The Breeze
Earlier this month as I was watching this juvenile (relatively short tail) Black-billed Magpie through my lens on Antelope Island I didn’t expect anything interesting to happen except for a possible take-off shot.