utah – Page 106 – Feathered Photography

Loggerhead Shrikes And The Curse Of The Teleconverter

I love my 1.4 teleconverter but it sure is painful when I make the wrong decision about using it.

Sexing Red-naped Sapsuckers Can Be Tricky

Male and female Red-naped Sapsuckers are almost identical in plumage and size so sexing them in the field can be difficult.

A War Of Wills With A Short-eared Owl And I Won

I have a stubborn streak that occasionally gets me into trouble but every once in a while it pays off.

Red-naped Sapsucker Removing Wood Chips And Fecal Sac From Nest Cavity (+ a barbed wire owl update)

Sapsuckers perform some interesting behaviors during nesting season and the pair I photographed three days ago in the Uinta Mountains was no exception.

Red-naped Sapsuckers – Changing Of The Guard

Yesterday morning I photographed a pair of Red-naped Sapsuckers as they attended to familial duties at their nest cavity in the Uinta Mountains.

Bullock’s Oriole Stealing Food From An Unhappy Spider

Stealing food from spiders can be a risky business. Bullock’s Orioles are known to do it but from the reaction of this bird I’d say he’s aware of the potential danger of doing so.

Short-eared Owl – An Image Can Be Cropped Deceptively

Creative cropping of an image can sometimes have more negative effects than positive ones.

Cedar Waxwings In The Wasatch Mountains

I don’t get opportunities with waxwings of either species very often.

Short-eared Owl Siblings Parallaxing (and an update on the owl hung up on barbed wire)

Normally it’s my practice to avoid posting the same species two days in a row. But in celebration of the (unexpected) good news about the juvenile Short-eared Owl we rescued from barbed wire two days ago I decided to make an exception. After all, I think we all prefer our owls happy and acting normally rather than hanging from barbed wire and in despair.

Another Nasty Encounter Between An Owl And A Barbed Wire Fence

Many readers will remember the Barn Owl I had to cut out of barbed wire last summer in Montana. At the time I only had a small, cheap and dull pair of wire cutters with me and the effort required to cut the thick double-stranded wire strained tendons in my arm that took several weeks to heal. So I invested in two new heavy-duty pairs of wire cutters to carry in my pickup in case I ever came across a similar situation again. It’s a darn good thing I did.

Clark’s Grebe Back-brooding Chicks

Yesterday morning was windy at Bear River MBR but it would take more than a little wind to curb the curiosity and enthusiasm of the many grebe chicks at the refuge. I saw Western Grebe, Clark’s Grebe and Pied-billed Grebe chicks but I had the most fun with Clark’s.