I photographed this female Osprey as she came in to land on her nest near the shoreline of the Flaming Gorge Reservoir in north-eastern Utah, quite often when Ospreys land they flare their wings and fan their tails to create enough drag to slow them down. The nest is on a manmade platform near the […]
Author: Mia McPherson
Mia McPherson is a nature lover, wildlife watcher and an avian photographer. Mia first become serious about bird photography when she moved to Florida in 2004. Her recent move to the Salt Lake area of Utah was a great opportunity to continue observing their behavior and photographing them. With so many birds species there easily accessible it wasn’t long before she was hooked. By learning more about each species, she can anticipate their behaviour and create opportunities to obtain ever better images of those species.
Herring Gulls
Two Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) at different stages of life, one is an adult in breeding plumage, the other an immature gull in flight. An exposed sandbar, soft morning light and the warm turquoise waters of the Gulf of Mexico in the background were the perfect setting for this adult Herring Gull in breeding plumage. […]
Black-bellied Plover – Up Close
One of the shorebird species I am able to see in Utah during migration that I photographed often while I lived in Florida are the lovely Black-bellied Plovers (Pluvialis squatarola). Black-bellied Plovers at the largest of the North American plovers and according to my iBird Pro app they are also the only American plover that […]
Western Kingbird – A Consolation Prize
There are times when I go out to photograph a specific species but come home with images of birds I didn’t expect to see. Yesterday Burrowing Owls with chicks were my target species but I wasn’t able to get as close as I would have liked though I did get images of this lovely Western […]
White-winged Doves
White-winged Doves (Zenaida asiatica) are one of the larger gray-colored dove species in North America and they are more at home in semi-arid and desert areas than Mourning Doves. White-winged Doves were at one point in time found mostly in the Rio Grande Valley but they have spread into the Great Plains, along the south […]
Birds on Poopy Perches
I bet you are wondering what I mean by “Poopy Perches”, I know I would be if I saw that title. Am I talking about perches that are man-made and ugly? Or perches that are just not all that appealing visually? I am really talking about poopy perches that go by the names manure, dung, […]
Common Raven in an Open Field
Will wonders never cease? The weather forecasters; who are usually way off on their predictions, were right yesterday. They called for partly cloudy weather and that is what happened. Of course when there were no birds the sky overhead was clear and when there were birds the hulking clouds blocked out most of the light. […]
Western Sandpiper on the Go
It dawned on me this morning that I haven not posted an image of a Western Sandpiper (Calidris mauri) here yet so I pulled this one out of my archives that I photographed at Fort De Soto, Florida as the small shorebird ran in front of me on the shoreline. Western Sandpipers winter along the […]