birding, photography and living with pet birds
Posted in owl on Jan 11th, 2013
I was taking pictures of Coots at Farmington Bay when I saw what looked like a fluffy red top on a pole, I focused in. Once you view it through the 500mm, it’s clear that I was viewing a Barn Owl. She is really beautiful, especially in flight: This [...]
Do you know that I have some coworkers who have lived in Utah for years and have never visited Antelope Island? I don’t know what’s wrong with them either. They’ve probably never even seen a Barn Owl. This was my best experience seeing them yet because they’re usually in the trailer. This time [...]
Posted in owl on Jan 1st, 2012
One of the first things that we did after moving to Utah was visit Antelope Island. This year Jon and I are starting an annual tradition of returning to Antelope Island for New Year’s Eve. The weather has been unseasonably warm lately so it was a balmy 32 degrees on the island yesterday. We had [...]
Posted in owl on Nov 27th, 2011
Last week Jon and I travelled to South Carolina and Georgia to visit relatives. I saw a ton of birds, including at least three new species. I visited several parks and learned that the park system on the east coast is amazing. They have defined walkways with all sorts of bridges and trail markers, public [...]
Posted in owl on Nov 18th, 2011
Back in May, several of the tours of Antelope Island included a look at Great-horned Owl babies. They’re extra adorable with all that fuzz. Mom was watching from nearby. It was a great opportunity to see her legs. First off, she’s wearing a lovely set of pants. Second, check out those serious claws. She could [...]
Posted in owl on Aug 8th, 2011
I mentioned a few weeks ago that we saw Burrowing Owls on a birding trip at Antelope Island. During that trip we also saw buffalo, a porcupine, antelope and a coyote. Jon took the most awesome picture of the coyote passing in front of an antelope. This was one of those trips where you need [...]
Back during the Great Salt Lake Birding Festival, we took an owl tour on Antelope Island where in one night we saw Great-horned Owls, Burrowing Owls and Barn Owls. I don’t want to bore you with the Great-horned Owls since I already posted about them recently. So I’ll show you the Barn Owls. The babies [...]
I went to Farmington Bay this morning. I’m tromping around in the trees searching for nests because I’m seeing robins standing with food in their mouths. When I hear a commotion in one tree. So I look more closely in the tree and I see this: BABY OWL! Baby owl, BABY OWL!!! He flew to [...]
Posted in owl on May 17th, 2011
On the second to last day of the Great Salt Lake Birding Festival, we did a four hour owling trip on Antelope Island. Many birding activities can be done on your own, but the task of looking for owls greatly benefits from having a guide. The guides know where the owls nest on the island [...]
Posted in owl on Oct 8th, 2010
Last weekend we spent two days birding Deseret Ranch with Bill Fenimore (who gives tours if you’re interested). We spent the first day with another birder who asked us why we chose to bird a place that we were just at last May. Well, with 220,000 acres, there was still a lot to see. There’s [...]