Thursday, March 08, 2012

Another visit to Farmington Bay

You just can't do photography without a trained assistant.  Jasper is in charge of spotting interesting things to shoot and just staring at them.  He doesn't point.  He never barks.  He just looks at things out the window with varying levels of interest.
You may remember this guy from a few weeks ago.  He was still hanging around the same area but this time he didn't have a mouse or a vole. Kestrels are just so colorful for a hawk, especially given that this is his winter plumage.
It has been nice getting to learn about the Farmington Bay preserve area.  Today I got another lesson.  From March through August, they close off most of the roads so that the birds can nest in peace. That knocked out most of the places I have been. Oops.  I have been mostly shooting using the car as a blind.  Next time I will go prepared for long hikes.

Most of the birds already nesting were Canadian Geese, but it was interesting to see this man-made Great Blue Heron rookery.  There were some early inhabitants. It will be interesting to see this again when it is full of herons and their chicks.
The parts of the preserve that I could get to were very pretty.  The Oquirrh Mountains (yes, that is spelled correctly) got some snow last week. This range is on the west side of Salt Lake City.  Too hard to make out at this size, but on the right hand edge of the water are two Bald Eagles.
The backdrop gave me an opportunity to try and create an artsy sort of picture as a pair of geese flew by.
I did manage to get two Bald Eagles to pose for a bit. The warm winter has really cut back on the eagle show at Farmington.
My best shot of the day.  It took quite a long time to sneak up close enough to get this shot.  What a great choice for our national bird.  And Ben Franklin wanted the turkey.  Really Ben?
... and to end the day on a weird note.  With all the eagles, hawks, coyotes, fox and other predators, it must be a tough life for a bird.

Especially this one.  I carefully cropped out the parts that would lead one to believe it was a Canadian Goose.  Just trust me on this one.

No comments: