First Shots from My Week-Long Trip

I just got back from a week-long birding trip to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in Utah, Malheur NWR in southeastern Oregon, and Tule NWR in northern California. Needless to say, I collected a massive number of photos I haven’t had nearly enough time to process. As always, I had a hard time figuring out the best way present the photos I’ve taken. Although this blog is largely a personal journal, reflecting my experiences over the last 10+ years, time doesn’t seem the best way to present these kinds of photos. To me, it makes better sense to present them by types of birds, though that means I would have to process the whole trip’s shots before I could write an entry. That might take weeks, and meanwhile my blog would have far too much “dead time.” So, more often than not I settle on a less-than-perfect (a wabi-sabi) approach.

At first I thought I would present shots of Yellow-Headed Blackbirds, which had to be the most prominent bird on this trip. I even processed several of the shots I got at Bear River, but changed my mind at the last moment and decided to show the bird that greeted me at my arrival at the refuge. I actually arrived an hour before the automatic gates opened, and I loved the rosy, early morning light in these shots.

This Night Heron almost looked as tired and frazzled as I was after driving 817 miles non-stop, and resting a few hours at a nearby rest spot before spending the morning birding.

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I suspect, though, that if I had tried this stretch while standing on one leg that I would have immediately fallen down.

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As it turned out, this

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was my favorite Night Heron shot of my trip, though I saw (or at least glanced) Night Herons in all three places I visited. Heck, it might even be my all-time favorite shot of a Night Heron. I really do need to get more shots in early morning and early evening light.