There are times when I really notice the difference between my old Nikon d40 and the 300s.  Birds in flight is the best example. About a month ago the gulls at Farmington Bay were going crazy.  There were swarms! Have you ever gone to the ocean and thrown bread at the gulls?  They were swarming [...]

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I write a lot about Western and Clark’s Grebes.  And in the summer we get Eared Grebes.  Well in the winter we get Pied-billed Grebes. Aren’t they cute?  In Utah they’re very shy birds so it took months of going to Farmington Bay before I got good shots like the one below. Ironically I got [...]

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I love Western and Clark Grebes.  They are always present in Utah and they have wild red eyes. Western Grebe I also love Farmington Bay, especially in the summer when everything is green. So imagine my delight when Jon suggested that we get customized stain glass windows of birds.  We chose grebes because they’re always [...]

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Fall migration has completed.  Out with the songbirds and in with the ducks!  Last week I headed out to Rockport State Park based on reports of Black Scoters.  I’ve never seen any scoters so I was game.  Alas, no such luck!  But the view was beautiful. But I did spot something new in the water. [...]

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Today we headed out to the Strawberry Reservoir in the Uinta National Forest.  It’s a nice time to visit because the mountains look like this: The fields look like this: And this: The best part about Strawberry Reservoir?  Baby grebes!!! The parents were very watchful.  When they saw me they would alert the others by [...]

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I have seen three different species of grebes in Utah.  I’ve talked about the Eared Grebe before.  Today, I’ll talk about the Western and Clark’s Grebes.  They look extremely similar so you have to see the pictures side-by-side.  Focus on the area around the eyes.  Here is the Western Grebe: The Clark’s Grebe is below: [...]

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For many gulls, it’s difficult to discern between the subtle variations of eye color, leg color and wing patterns to make an identification.  Bonaparte’s Gulls, on the other hand, can be identified on sight. The Bonaparte’s Gull is on top and the Kildeer is on the bottom for size comparison.  During breeding, the Bonaparte’s Gull [...]

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The breeding plumage of Eared Grebes is wild looking! Would you believe that these birds have white, grey and black plumage in the winter?  They look more like the Clark’s Grebe in the winter, but with a shorter black beak.  Every time I see one it reminds me of a teenager because they look like [...]

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I started off my photography experiment with an entry level Nikon D40.  It’s a very good base for taking still photos but the camera can only capture 2.5 frames per second.  When you take pictures of birds in flight, that means a lot of blurry pictures.  I bought a Nikon D300s base a few months [...]

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Ring-Billed Gulls are easy to identify.  Faithful to their name, they have a black ring around their beaks.  Another distinguishing mark is their pale eyes. California Gulls are more difficult to identify.  The key is to look at the eye ring, the beak coloring and the legs.  Below is a California Gull in winter plumage. [...]

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