Tension has been high between several species at the nest cavity tree. When we arrived yesterday morning this male Northern Flicker was inside the cavity and he spent considerable time enlarging the interior but a pair of Mountain Bluebirds took strong exception to his presence.
Usually when something unexpected happens in the field my lens is pointed in another direction but in this instance the timing couldn’t have been much better.
Male Greater Sage-Grouse fights can be so intense as to cause injuries that range from cuts to broken wings.
Watching Greater Sage-Grouse performing on a lek in a remote area of Wayne County, Utah yesterday morning was an experience I’ll never forget. Ever!
Two days ago this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk was hunting from a sign post and everything seemed to be calm – to the point that I was enjoying the sunflowers in the setting and the irony of the sign it was perched on. That tranquility didn’t last long…
Generally the White-faced Ibis is non-aggressive as it feeds in large groups of its own kind. Even when they accidentally bump into each other there is usually no aggressive response. But there are exceptions…
The Centennial Valley had one more surprise in store as we left for home last Thursday morning. Photographing birds and other wildlife along the 27 mile long dirt road while I’m pulling the camping trailer is always awkward but the road is typically deserted that time of day and we’ve come up with something special more than once on the way out.
The winter of 2008 was severe and it put a lot of survival pressure on our resident birds, particularly raptors. The number of Northern Harriers wintering over at Farmington Bay seemed unusually high and toward the end of the winter there was intense competition for dwindling food supplies.
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.
Two days ago I was able to spend enough time with these wild horses in the west desert of Utah to begin to get a feeling for their complex social life.
Yesterday we had an incredible morning with a herd of wild horses in the west desert of Utah.
The song of the meadowlark often stirs fond memories and thoughts of peaceful and melodious spring mornings. But for birds that song represents the tension of competition for territories and females – anything but tranquility.
The seriousness of confrontations between Northern Harriers varies with the situation. Conflicts over food, especially during harsh winters, can be intense and dramatic but they often seem to spar with each other just for the “fun” of it. I’ve often seen and occasionally photographed both extremes of aggressive behavior.
Northern Harriers are well-known for aggressive behavior toward larger raptors intruding on their territory but seldom chase off raptor species smaller than themselves. This interesting behavioral quirk apparently results from the ability of harriers to steal food from smaller raptors. It’s easier to pilfer prey from a smaller species than it is to catch it yourself so harriers let them hang around.
