Occasionally I post a collection of recent photos, some of which may not deserve standalone status on my blog. But I think they have something positive to offer, including collectively as a representation of the types of subjects I’ve been photographing lately.
Each of the following seven photos was taken in northern Utah in the last 13 days.
A Northern Harrier warming up on a frosty morning very soon after sunrise.
A Loggerhead Shrike scolding me from his lofty perch.
A male Horned Lark in the midst of an enthusiastic rouse. It’s a busy setting, including grass stems in front of the bird, but it’s typical habitat for the species and I like the splash of yellow and his fluffed-up appearance.
A shy Green-winged Teal drake on a cloudy day.
A coyote with its presumed mate at upper left. These two raced across the road in front of me and then stopped to look back.
“AOM” with his lady on the left. I like the contrasting poses of the two kestrels as the female was about to pass in front of him, just prior to mating.
I took so many photos I like of them mating that I haven’t posted before, I wanted to include one more. Here I like the asymmetry of AOM’s wing positions and the female’s topsy-turvy posture with just enough of a head turn to provide a catch light in her eye.
It may not look like it in many of these photos, but our recent persistently dreary weather has kept me mostly out of the field for a couple of weeks. Beginning the middle of next week that’s supposed to change for the better, so I have reasonable hopes of getting more bird photos in the near future.
Damn good thing. Cabin fever is setting in quickly
Ron
Late addendum: I just now saw my first house fly of the year (on my bathroom window). Maybe spring is right around the corner. Gotta take the bad with the good I guess.
Sensational series!
All Great photos. When in Bountiful, we always had canaries – all yellow, and a miriad of other colorful birds (blue, blue jays, oriols, robins, etc.) – until the magpies arrived. I think the only bird I do not like is the magpie!
Keep up the good work.
Thank you, Judy. I’m thinking your “canaries” might have been goldfinches. We have two species of them.
I love birdpourri! With healthy-looking coyotes added in for good measure.
I won’t choose a favorite because each of these holds special allure, whether they’re fairly frequent subjects of yours (harrier, kestrels) or more rarely seen (shrike, lark, teal) — I’m very happy to enjoy them all, and thank you for a fine Sunday morning post . 
Much appreciated, Chris. Yes, I’ve been posting quite a few harriers and kestrels lately and there may be more harriers sometime soon. As you can tell, I’m a raptor kinda guy.
The background in the harrier photo is beautiful – the soft focus, the colors, the light all shimmery. It’d make a beautiful fabric for some fancy ball dress!
Hooray for your housefly! We’ve had a huge flock of robins (100+) visiting the neighborhood since Friday – They settle high in the trees and just flood the air with waves of sound. It feels very spring-like!
Carolyn, we have at least some robins year round but I’ve noticed their numbers increasing too. I’ll take the flies if it’s a sign of approaching spring.
Nice series, Ron.
Shrike looks like either the wind or a rouse have gotten to him. 
Coyote sure has a nice, lush, winter coat. Of course, AOM and mate are fun – amazing how anything gets accomplished with the contortions involved…. 
Doing the warm and windy thing – 42 this morning. Hopefully the bitter sub-zero shit is done with us! Water ponding with frozen ground – rarely thankful for low water content in snow but right now I am!
Judy, I think both the breeze and the cold were responsible for his feathers being in disarray.
Your comment reminded me of how long it took the frozen ground to thaw out in the early spring on the MT farm. It would often freeze a long way down.
Yep on frost depth – water mains in GF, Billings, and other places starting to “protest”.
I just checked. The building code frost depth here in SLC is 30″. The average building code frost depth in Montana is 61″. That says something about our respective temps.
Ron, I have a dumb question. On your last set of photos, what is AOM??? Those are Kestrels right?
Connie, the male kestrel is banded with a green band that says “AOM”, so that’s what I call him. I’ve been photographing him and posting photos of him for several years now, so he’s become an old friend.
What a nice variety of critters, colors, textures and poses….I thought
that the thorny branches surrounding the shrike were especially
apropos , echoing as they do that “impaler” of a beak. I wondered if the “cloudy day” may have punched up the glow of green on the teal’s
wing feathers ? I’ve seen that effect on some plant foliage under
those conditions, but I don’t understand it– maybe somebody in your
posse can explain it ?
“I wondered if the “cloudy day” may have punched up the glow of green on the teal’s wing feathers?
I suspect it did, Kris. I’ve seen that effect many times before but I don’t understand it either. It certainly wasn’t because of any ‘creative’ processing I did to the photo.
I like this occasional mix of subjects. Enjoyed them all. But gotta go with that last shot as today’s favorite, for all the points you mentioned and more.
For some crazy reason a song that I have not thought of for many decades came to mind; Up On The Roof by The Drifters. As one lyric goes:
“Right smack dab in the middle of town
I’ve found a paradise that’s trouble proof
And if this world starts getting you down
There’s room enough for two
Up on the roof”
Thanks for the earworm, Michael. I need to spend more time on that roof.