I don’t post images of these two species as often as I should. Both are common in my area and such large birds are relatively easy to photograph in flight so I hope the reason I’ve largely ignored them has nothing to do with snobbishness on my part.
This is an eclectic group of images but maybe that’s part of the appeal for me. They give me a sense of the variety of my subjects even when my primary goal is birds.
The diet of Black-necked Stilts consists primarily of aquatic invertebrates but they’re also known to take the occasional small fish.
Back brooding grebes are always fun to photograph but this image holds additional interest for me even beyond the “cuteness factor” of the chick.
Adult Barn Swallows stuff insects so far down the throats of their youngsters that it can almost look like the young birds are trying to swallow the head of their parent.
This is only a mediocre image at best and I’ll never use it for anything other than this post but I was impressed that I was able to get it at all.
A juvenile grebe that wasn’t ravenous and begging loudly for an offered meal? That’s something I haven’t seen before.
Our smoky skies can be a real problem for bird photographers. For now I’ve pretty much given up on flight shots where the background is sky because the smoke makes that background uniformly gray and unappealing.
I’m always surprised when I see Western Grebes with young chicks this late in the year but it does happen.
When a parent Barn Swallow stuffs food into the mouth of one of its fledglings it usually comes off flawlessly. But not always…
This pugnacious juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron decided to take on a group of Snowy Egrets for the best fishing spot in this pond at Bear River MBR three days ago.
I don’t have a great track record with Black-crowned Night Herons in flight but yesterday morning I had some success with juveniles of the species at Bear River MBR.
I seldom get an opportunity to photograph a grebe of any species on a nest so I’ll take the shot even if the bird has its back to me. At least this Western Grebe gave me a partial head turn in compensation.
