For raptors in particular hunting and roosting perches are close to essential but these days they’re at a premium at Farmington Bay WMA. And the situation is rapidly deteriorating.
Methinks I sometimes bitch too much when unexpected inclement weather forces me to stay home instead of going shooting as I planned.
Some history of the “glory days” with Bald Eagles at Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area and some thoughts on what potentially happened to those days.
Farmington Bay Wildlife Management Area is typically a mecca for birders and bird photographers during January and February. When it gets very cold many of Utah’s wintering Bald Eagles congregate there and create quite the spectacle for avian enthusiasts. Though I’m not particularly fond of photographing birds among throngs of people I usually can’t resist the unusual opportunity with these magnificent birds and join in the fray multiple times during the “season”. 1/1250, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc One thing that especially appeals to me about Farmington Bay is the opportunity to photograph these eagles in flight with the Wasatch Mountains as a background. Even though such a background makes it much more difficult for focus to “lock on” the bird I really like the dramatic backdrop the dark, often shaded mountains provide when there’s light on the eagle – much more appealing for me than the typical blue sky background. Typically there are hundreds of eagles at the refuge during “prime time”. I once counted 225 birds and that’s just the ones I could see. Others have reported from 300-400 birds. This photo should give you some idea, though it shows just one small portion of Unit One. The concentration of birds was about the same that day everywhere you looked over the ice. This is the famous “eagle tree”. I’ve seen as many as 20 birds on this one perch alone. Of course the eagles prefer to look south over the ice and water so it’s difficult…
