Recently I’ve spent four mornings photographing hummingbirds and sphinx moths as they fed on Rocky Mountain Bee Plant on Antelope Island. This morning I thought I’d present a rather diverse mix of Black-chinned and Rufous Hummingbird images from those sessions.
I’ve found the rushing behavior of Western Grebes to be one of the more difficult bird photography challenges of all. First of all you have to be there when it happens and I’ve only seen it a handful of times.
Yesterday morning I spent more time with the hummingbirds on Antelope Island. This female Rufous Hummingbird perched close and gave me some interesting poses.
Many photographers use elaborate setups and flash when photographing hummingbirds. I prefer au naturel.
Today I digress from birds or even mammals. Our subject will have no feathers or fur – instead we’ll see paired wings, body segments, antennae and an incredibly long “tongue”. And we’ll have close-up looks at a fascinating insect in flight.
When common birds perform uncommon behaviors it catches my eye. And hopefully my lens. This was a behavior completely new to me for this species.
In my experience Red-tailed Hawks in flight most often carry prey in their talons but this molting adult surprised me a little.
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…
On a visit to Glover Pond last week I found this Greater Yellowlegs resting on a rock surrounded by relatively clear, still water which I thought made a nice setting for the bird (even though the rock also provided some compositional challenges).
I’ve always loved ravens. I appreciate their intelligence, their adaptability and their association with myth and mystery in human folklore. I also enjoy their playfulness. But here in Utah the future is not looking bright for our two largest corvid species, the Common Raven and the American Crow.
Believe it or not it was at that moment that a Loggerhead Shrike with a chip on its shoulder swooped in out of nowhere to harass the hawk. Because I was ready for it I was able to get two shots with both birds in the frame. In this first one I don’t believe the hawk yet knows the shrike is there.
I’m no authority on the highly variable color variations of the Red-tailed Hawk but I believe this bird to be an intermediate-morph adult. I love these rufous-colored hawks.
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.
For millennia a variety of North American bird species used bison hair during nest construction but when the “buffalo” was brought to the brink of extinction by hunters in the late 1800’s that resource was essentially gone. Today there are relatively few places where bison hair is available to birds and Antelope Island is one of them.
Western Meadowlarks are good subjects for practicing take-off shots. The rule of thumb is the smaller the bird the faster the take-off, so songbirds are difficult subjects for this type of shot because of their small size and quickness.
