Merlins are winter visitors in the Salt Lake Valley so I have just a few more weeks to attempt photographing them. Merlins used to be called “pigeon hawks” because their shape and flight patterns are similar to pigeons. Merlins feed on small mammals, birds as large as doves and apparently they include bats in their […]
Juvenile Burrowing Owl Portrait
Just a simple portrait of a juvenile Burrowing Owl taken in the soft light of dawn. Burrowing Owls are beautiful birds with lemony yellow eyes, downy soft feathers and subtle coloration. It’s hard to believe that they aren’t that much different in size from an American Robin. OnTheWingPhotography.com
Birding Couch Park, with an homage to the Babe
A much-debated legend in baseball involves the New York Yankee’s Babe Ruth at the plate facing the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field for game 3 of the 1932 World Series. According to the story, Ruth was enduring quite a bit of trash-talk from the Cubs’ bench, and he returned same: With the count at two […]
Snowy Owl “irruption” in North America
Local farmers, amateur birdwatchers and bird researchers have witnessed an unusual and at times disturbing phenomenon recently as huge numbers of snowy owls are migrating south from the Arctic and being seen as far south as Missouri. Such are the increasingly large numbers of this majestic owl species that it is being described as a “mass […]
Is this the beginning of the end of the Canadian commercial seal hunt?
Comments being made in certain quarters of the Canadian politicalhierarchymay indicate that there is a creepingrealisationthat the negative publicity that Canada receives from its adherence to the annual commercial seal hunt is not worth the financial returns obtained from the selling of seal products. Ryan Cleary, a New Democrat MP representing Labrador and Newfoundland has […]
Wild and Wonderful – Antelope Island State Park – The Wildlife
Article written and photos taken by Mia McPherson This is part 2 of my three part series on Wild and Wonderful Antelope Island State Park and it covers some of the wildlife that can be found howling, grazing, buzzing, napping and posing for my camera. One of the first furry critters I saw on my […]
Great Blue Heron at Sunrise
Just a single image today but an image that I like for its simplicity, morning light, composition, fine detail and watery background. Another one of the reasons I enjoy this photo is that the eye of the Great Blue Heron has a colored catchlight that is from the sun glowing yellow on the eastern horizon. […]
Recent UAE Vagrants and Migrants
This is my first post in ‘Focusing on Wildlife’. I thought I’d post about some of the vagrants migrants seen in the UAE recently. I start on 23rd December with a trip to Zakher Lakes near Al Ain, the water levels here are increasing at an alarming rate. There used to be many reed beds […]