Nine days ago at Farmington Bay the weather and the light were uncooperative but this female American Kestrel more than made up for it.
(Note: I needed twelve images to tell this story so don’t be surprised if this post takes longer than usual to load.)
This female American Kestrel has been hanging around the same area of Farmington for almost two weeks now. Yesterday morning we found her near the end of one of her meals.
In my area most sparrow species aren’t easy to approach or catch out in the open for most of the year but when it’s very cold and they decide it’s time to begin their communal morning feeding routine they become much braver souls. Earlier this week I photographed three species of sparrows as they harvested seeds from their frost-covered parent plants.
Although the American Coot is almost exclusively a herbivore it will occasionally make an exception and eat animal matter. They’re also well-known for food thievery (kleptoparasitism) and two days ago this Pied-billed Grebe nearly became one of its victims.
Yesterday morning the Pied-billed Grebes at Farmington were having a bit of a feeding frenzy and I was able to capture several instances of interesting feeding behavior.
Young Yellow-headed Blackbirds leave the nest long before they can fly, at the very early age of 9 – 12 days. From then until they can fly they spend their time hiding in the dead vegetation near the surface of the water and begging incessantly for food.
This youngster had the begging routine down to a science.
At first glance Pied-billed Grebes may come across as nondescript, bland little birds without much personality but I’ve found the opposite to often be true. When they’re not resting or grooming they’re active, quite vocal and when they’re feeding in groups they’re often aggressive, even pugnacious. Their kleptoparasitic tendencies can be entertaining to watch in the extreme.
Notice the layer of ice at the bottom of the frame – that ice will come into play later in the sequence.
Last winter Northern Harriers really struggled to survive here in northern Utah. For several months it was bitter cold with a thick layer of snow on the ground which made it close to impossible for our wintering raptors (including Barn Owls) to find and catch their typical prey – voles. So harriers were forced to look for other food sources, including small birds. Songbirds are relatively scarce here that time of year but this harrier got lucky.
Due to ongoing copyright infringement issues I’ve recently spent enormous amounts of time registering many thousands of my images with the U.S. Copyright Office. During that process I ran across these American Goldfinch images that I’d essentially forgotten about. They were taken almost exactly 6 years ago (11/18/2007) when I was first learning bird photography.
Gadwalls are well-known for stealing food (kleptoparasitism) from American Coots . They eat the same kinds of food (submerged aquatic vegetation), Gadwalls are almost a third bigger than coots and the two species often feed together in mixed flocks so being the bullies on the block, Gadwalls can’t resist taking advantage of the situation.
The Black-crowned Night Heron is the most widespread heron in the world. They are opportunistic feeders that feed on a wide variety of prey and I’ve seen them swallow some amazingly large prey items. I suspect that their rather interesting-looking tongue plays a significant role in their success.
A week ago today I had my best photo opportunity with the elusive Wilsons’s Snipe. Several of them, in fact. And this time they gave me an intimate look at their feeding behavior.
The Wilson’s Snipe is an odd little shorebird, both in appearance and in some of its behaviors. Though common, they’re also elusive and shy so over the years I’ve been able to get very few quality images of them. But my luck with the species changed for the better three days ago.
Though Short-eared Owls are one of the worlds most widespread owls, the species is highly dependent on the density of its small mammal prey, voles in particular. Since vole populations fluctuate wildly, Short-eared Owls show significant local variation in numbers and reproductive success from year to year.
Yesterday morning I saw my first Bald Eagle of the season at Farmington Bay. It was too far away for even mediocre images but it was there! We have a small number of resident eagles in northern Utah but those few birds normally don’t hang out at Farmington this early in the season so I’m not sure if it was a wandering resident or an early migrant. Either way it was a delight to see.
As a result, when I began thinking about today’s post my mind kept returning to eagles so I thought I’d present several images taken at Farmington two winters ago.
