Lark Sparrow
The bold harlequin face pattern and unique courtship behaviors of the Lark Sparrow make it among my favorite sparrows to observe and photograph.
Category: Birds
Northern Mockingbird Displaying In Low Light
On a dark, cloudy morning on Antelope Island last month I had an opportunity with a displaying Northern Mockingbird. The shooting conditions were difficult but I decided to play at the edge of the limits of my gear and see what I could get. These shots are not sequential of the same take-off and landing but in the order I’ve presented them I think they illustrate the behavior reasonably well.
Male Western Kingbird Greeting His Lady
Male Western Kingbirds take no part in nest construction or incubation. Nor do they feed the female while she’s on the nest (she leaves the nest to feed several times per day). But he’s always there, seeming to offer encouragement and watch carefully over the proceedings.
Fledgling Yellow-headed Blackbird, Begging For And Then Receiving Food
I’ve been stuck in the house for what seems like an eternity because of the gloomy weather and lack of light. It rained all day yesterday (which is unusual for us here in the semi-desert) and I keep thinking of all the early summer bird activity I’m missing so this morning I reached back into the archives for some shots that would remind me of what I’m not seeing and photographing. I’m a glutton for punishment…
Wild Horses – A Possible, Partial New Solution To Their Management Problem On Our Public Lands
Last month I spent some time photographing the Onaqui herd of wild horses in Utah’s west desert. Management of wild horses on public lands is a contentious issue and the BLM has now proposed the use of a relatively new management tool in an attempt at reigning in the population increase of the Onaqui herd.
A Few More Birds (and a personal observation) From Our Recent Montana Camping Trip
This post is largely a collection of photos that documents some of the bird species I photographed on our recent camping trip to southwest Montana. Most of these images have flaws and as I’m prone to do I’ll be pointing those flaws out but for me each of the images has something positive to offer to make up for their shortcomings.
My Favorite Image From My Time With The Nest-building Kingbirds
Earlier this week I spent several mornings photographing a female Western Kingbird as she was constructing her nest. Out of the many hundreds of shots I took of her the third image in this post is my favorite.
Red-tailed Hawk Chicks (and my emotional attachment to them)
We’ve been keeping an eye on this Red-tailed Hawk nest in the west desert for about three years now.
Birds Using Bison Hair As Nesting Material
For millennia a variety of North American bird species used bison hair during nest construction but when the “buffalo” was brought to the brink of extinction by hunters in the late 1800’s that resource was essentially gone. Today there are relatively few places where bison hair is available to birds and Antelope Island is one of them.
Meadowlark Take-offs With Food And Without (and a contrast in image quality)
Western Meadowlarks are good subjects for practicing take-off shots. The rule of thumb is the smaller the bird the faster the take-off, so songbirds are difficult subjects for this type of shot because of their small size and quickness.
Nest-building Western Kingbird
Yesterday morning we photographed an industrious female Western Kingbird as she worked at constructing her nest. In this species the sexes are similar but only the female builds the nest. The male hung around nearby as he watched over the laborious construction process and offered his mate encouragement (that was good of him don’t you think?).
Male Harrier Hunting In A Quartering Wind
The eight minutes I spent photographing this male Northern Harrier in flight were both exhilarating and frustrating to the extreme.
Bald Eagle In Montana’s Centennial Valley
I often photograph Bald Eagles in Utah during winter but for me those images have a different mood (for lack of a better word) because they’re often taken near urban environments and for me they don’t convey the feeling of wildness that I so love about the Centennial Valley. And I very seldom get anything “green” in my Utah Bald Eagle images taken in winter.
My Four (and a half) “Lifers” In Eight Days
At this point in my photography “career” it’s unusual for me to get a new lifer but lately I’ve been on a roll.
Two Recent Swainson’s Hawks
So far this year Swainson’s Hawk populations seem to be a little spotty. I’m finding them in normal concentrations in some areas but in others where there’s been good numbers of them in the past they seem to be rare or nonexistent. I’m not really alarmed about it, rather I suspect this is just one more example of localized bird numbers being difficult to predict.
-
Northern Mockingbird Displaying In Low Light
On a dark, cloudy morning on Antelope Island last month I had an opportunity with a displaying Northern Mockingbird. The shooting conditions were difficult but I decided to play at the edge of the limits of my gear and see what I could get. These shots are not sequential of the same take-off and landing but in the order I’ve presented them I think they illustrate the behavior reasonably well.
Male Western Kingbird Greeting His Lady
Male Western Kingbirds take no part in nest construction or incubation. Nor do they feed the female while she’s on the nest (she leaves the nest to feed several times per day). But he’s always there, seeming to offer encouragement and watch carefully over the proceedings.
Fledgling Yellow-headed Blackbird, Begging For And Then Receiving Food
I’ve been stuck in the house for what seems like an eternity because of the gloomy weather and lack of light. It rained all day yesterday (which is unusual for us here in the semi-desert) and I keep thinking of all the early summer bird activity I’m missing so this morning I reached back into the archives for some shots that would remind me of what I’m not seeing and photographing. I’m a glutton for punishment…
Wild Horses – A Possible, Partial New Solution To Their Management Problem On Our Public Lands
Last month I spent some time photographing the Onaqui herd of wild horses in Utah’s west desert. Management of wild horses on public lands is a contentious issue and the BLM has now proposed the use of a relatively new management tool in an attempt at reigning in the population increase of the Onaqui herd.
A Few More Birds (and a personal observation) From Our Recent Montana Camping Trip
This post is largely a collection of photos that documents some of the bird species I photographed on our recent camping trip to southwest Montana. Most of these images have flaws and as I’m prone to do I’ll be pointing those flaws out but for me each of the images has something positive to offer to make up for their shortcomings.
My Favorite Image From My Time With The Nest-building Kingbirds
Earlier this week I spent several mornings photographing a female Western Kingbird as she was constructing her nest. Out of the many hundreds of shots I took of her the third image in this post is my favorite.
Red-tailed Hawk Chicks (and my emotional attachment to them)
We’ve been keeping an eye on this Red-tailed Hawk nest in the west desert for about three years now.
Birds Using Bison Hair As Nesting Material
For millennia a variety of North American bird species used bison hair during nest construction but when the “buffalo” was brought to the brink of extinction by hunters in the late 1800’s that resource was essentially gone. Today there are relatively few places where bison hair is available to birds and Antelope Island is one of them.
Meadowlark Take-offs With Food And Without (and a contrast in image quality)
Western Meadowlarks are good subjects for practicing take-off shots. The rule of thumb is the smaller the bird the faster the take-off, so songbirds are difficult subjects for this type of shot because of their small size and quickness.
Nest-building Western Kingbird
Yesterday morning we photographed an industrious female Western Kingbird as she worked at constructing her nest. In this species the sexes are similar but only the female builds the nest. The male hung around nearby as he watched over the laborious construction process and offered his mate encouragement (that was good of him don’t you think?).
Male Harrier Hunting In A Quartering Wind
The eight minutes I spent photographing this male Northern Harrier in flight were both exhilarating and frustrating to the extreme.
Bald Eagle In Montana’s Centennial Valley
I often photograph Bald Eagles in Utah during winter but for me those images have a different mood (for lack of a better word) because they’re often taken near urban environments and for me they don’t convey the feeling of wildness that I so love about the Centennial Valley. And I very seldom get anything “green” in my Utah Bald Eagle images taken in winter.
My Four (and a half) “Lifers” In Eight Days
At this point in my photography “career” it’s unusual for me to get a new lifer but lately I’ve been on a roll.
Two Recent Swainson’s Hawks
So far this year Swainson’s Hawk populations seem to be a little spotty. I’m finding them in normal concentrations in some areas but in others where there’s been good numbers of them in the past they seem to be rare or nonexistent. I’m not really alarmed about it, rather I suspect this is just one more example of localized bird numbers being difficult to predict.