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<\/p>\nIn the last three days I’ve visited three urban ponds in the Salt Lake Valley while looking for birds, in addition to my very long and mostly unproductive trip to the west desert. I didn’t find much at the ponds either, but I didn’t get skunked.<\/p>\n
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A couple of Gadwalls hanging out together. They were very “clingy” but this is the only shot I got where both were sharp and both had light in their eye.<\/p>\n
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A Redhead just prior to sundown, thus the warm light. This is a lower shooting angle than I usually get with ducks on a pond, which I like.<\/p>\n
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A Belted Kingfisher (a male I believe, although I never got a good look at the front of him) that I hold responsible for preventing me from getting several interesting action shots of other birds.<\/p>\n
For more than an hour he chattered from the trees that were far too distant for me to get good shots of him. Occasionally he’d fly in closer and his almost constant chattering made him impossible to ignore so I spent way too much time watching him. Concentrating on him caused me to miss several takeoffs and brief bird fights that occurred among other birds. Thanks a lot, Bud.<\/p>\n
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A post-bath wing flap from a male Common Goldeneye.<\/p>\n
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Perhaps the most boring Great Blue Heron I ever spent time with.<\/p>\n
I watched this bird closely for an hour and 20 minutes, fully expecting ‘him’ to eventually do something<\/em> interesting like preen, or take off or go fishing in the water that was just below him. But in that much time all he did was turn his head a couple of times, stand on one foot instead of two and close his eyes and sleep. In this shot I consider myself lucky to get his eyes fully open.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I don’t end a blog post with a Mallard very often but this guy is in such fine fettle I think he deserves to be the closer. Drake Mallards in good light and swimming through, and providing, interesting water reflections are hard to beat. I think the floating feather is a bonus.<\/p>\n We need snow, lots of snow, to bring in more birds. And to rescue our increasingly thirsty Great Salt Lake.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the last three days I’ve visited three urban ponds in the Salt Lake Valley while looking for birds. (6 photos of 6 species)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/mallard-8708-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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