Coyotes Like Eggs For Breakfast Too
At 5:30 yesterday morning Mia and I almost decided to stay home rather than make the hour-long drive to Antelope Island because the area up north looked to be socked in with clouds (the “Farmington Curse” I’ve mentioned before) but after we picked up our traditional “shooting breakfast” (chocolate donuts) we chose to take our chances and go anyway – a choice I’m glad we made.
Golden Eagle In Flight
The Golden Eagle has long been a nemesis species for me. Over the years I’ve had a handful of potentially spectacular opportunities with these birds but something has always gone wrong.
Red-tailed Hawk – A Twisting Take-off After Prey
The sturdy, broad-winged buteos tend to be large raptors with correspondingly slower movements than most smaller birds. Most of the time when I’m watching them they’re hunting from an elevated perch or soaring overhead and in neither situation do they typically demonstrate much quickness or agility.
But they can put on quite the show when they need to.
Male Osprey Landing At Nest
This is the nesting pair of Ospreys I photographed at Flaming Gorge, Utah two weeks ago today. The male was coming in for a landing to relieve the female on the eggs. The dark background was a deeply shaded mountain to contrast the bird that had a little more light on it.
Oolitic Sand – The Perfect Idiot Trap
There’ll be no birds in today’s post, I’m afraid. It takes me an hour to get to the island from my home and it’s not unusual for me to have clear skies when I leave much before dawn and then have it be mostly socked in when I arrive at the Farmington Bay/Antelope Island area – a phenomenon I refer to as the “Farmington Curse”. That’s exactly what happened yesterday morning so I generally had poor light and got correspondingly low quality photos, which I deleted.
The only saving grace of the morning was some karmic justice I observed on the island.
Clark’s Grebe Blowin’ In The Wind
Three days ago at Bear River Migratory Bird refuge I had some wind to contend with as I was photographing this Clark’s Grebe. It made the water a little choppy and would occasionally ruffle the feathers of one of the birds when it turned its back to the breeze.
The effect varied fairly dramatically.
Western Meadowlark In Flight
I find getting quality photos of songbirds in flight to be almost impossible – they’re just too small and fast for me to lock on to long enough to get them sharp and near the middle of the frame so nothing is clipped. But I do keep trying and occasionally things work out.
Eastern Kingbird Casting A Pellet
This morning at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge I saw kingbirds galore – mostly Western but also a few Eastern Kingbirds. Soon it became obvious that this Eastern Kingbird was about to cast a pellet.
Light Red-tailed Hawk
Yesterday we found this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk perched on one of the darker Farmington Canyon Complex rocks on Antelope Island. I thought the generally light coloration of this bird to be slightly unusual but I’m certainly no expert on the color phases and morphs of this highly variable species.
Willet Take-off
Yesterday morning I found this Willet perched on one of the Tintic Quartzite boulders so common on the northern part of Antelope Island. The Willets are still active on the higher slopes of the island but it won’t be long until they’re spending most of their time along the shoreline and causeway.