Month: June 2015

Clark’s Grebes Courting

The most common bird I saw at Bear River this visit had to be the Western/Clark Grebe, and luckily, they were also the most entertaining, though it’s hard to show why they were so entertaining with still shots. I really do need to sit down for a while and learn how to take movies with my Canon SLR and then buy something to edit those movies.

I don’t know enough about Grebe behavior to know what all the different grebes were doing, but it looked like they were in very different stages of courting and mating. Heck, I saw at least one pair with two large babies, another pair seriously “necking,” others running across the water as they’re supposed to do during mating (though it seemed odd that there were four of them running at the same time), and these two who look like they might have just been flirting with each other.

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This strip is made up of 9 sequential pictures taken over 40 seconds or so (don’t look too closely because Photoshop wasn’t able to blend all the waves correctly). I was waiting for them to get up and run across the water and dive together after this initial flirtation, but they apparently weren’t ready for that serious of a commitment.

These certainly seem to be Clark’s Grebes, so I wonder if they perform different mating rituals than the Western Grebes I’ve seen so many films of. Watching them wasn’t quite as fantastic as watching the Sage Grouse courtship in Malheur last year, but it wasn’t far behind. I spent hours photographing the grebes, which is why it has taken me so long to trim them down to the best shots and still convey a sense of the magic that was happening in front of me.

The White-Faced Ibis Kept their Distance

Another bird I always enjoy seeing at Bear River is the White-Faced Ibis because we never see them on the west side of the Cascades. There were large flocks of them at Bear River, but they seemed unusually shy this time. As I approached them the closest birds would fly off and before I could reach the next group they, too, would have taken off.

Trying to get shots of birds flying overhead while still rolling forward on a steeply banked gravel road is not conducive to great shots,

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but at least two of the birds seem to be in focus.

What’s strangest about this is that I’ve never noticed White-Faced Ibis to be so flighty before. Most of the time they’re just plain indifferent to birders in their cars. This ibis which was in a field with Avocets and Stilts, and not with a flock of White-Faced Ibis seemed totally indifferent to me, just as the avocets were.

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If it hadn’t been so distant and if the sun hadn’t been behind it, this might have been “the shot” I was looking for. The brilliant breeding colors are clearly there.

The grass was still short enough in this field that you could see the White-Faced Ibis’ distinctive beak and see how well they blend in with their habitat.

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Strangely enough, I had nearly the same experience at Malheur where I went right after leaving Bear River. Both places had large flocks of Ibis but they were so flighty that if I didn’t know better I would have thought it was hunting season. Coincidentally, this is the first time I haven’t seen the Ibis dispersed with avocets and stilts, and I can’t help but wonder if that doesn’t have something to do with their sensitivity to intruders.

This failure to get a single excellent shot of a White-Faced Ibis, one of the most numerous birds on the refuge, was one of the few frustrating moments at Bear River.

A Hair-Raising Intrusion

The Snowy Egret is a favorite photographic subject of mine because of its feathery beauty, its masterful Tai Chi-like grace while hunting.

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I’m sure, though, it’s prey must have a very different image of the bird, and I’ll find it difficult to ever see just that aspect of the egret after taking this sequence of shots.

I was watching this egret fishing, waiting for it to strike a graceful hunting pose. I certainly didn’t expect this.

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Faster than a Canon can focus, it flew to the top of the dam to confront another Snowy Egret that had dared to intrude on its personal fishing hole.

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The intruder obligingly left the scene

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which normally defuses the conflict and the winner is content to go back to hunting, but this Snowy Egret didn’t seem content at all,

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pursuing the offender until they were both long out of sight.

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Apparently it takes more than beauty and grace to thrive in the real world, unless, of course, we expand our definition of beauty and grace.

Utah’s Antelope Island

Since it was raining and better weather was forecast the next day, I decided I would spend the afternoon visiting Utah’s Antelope Island rather than making a second trip around the Bear River refuge. I’d never heard of Antelope Island, but a birder had said that she loved it when I mentioned I was going to Bear River. Since it was close, I decided it would be worth the effort, especially since they had a bison herd and Leslie and I had terrible luck when we visited the National Bison Range last year. My luck was much better this time as I actually saw two different herds of buffalo, one in the distance and another quite close to a dirt road. Considering the name of the island and the narrow approach to it, I was a little suspicious about how buffalo would have ended up here. Still, they certainly looked like they could have grazed here forever.

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A little reading, though, reveals that “twelve bison were introduced to the island at a time when the bison population in North America numbered less than 1,000 head” around the turn of the century by Dooley. He hoped to attract hunters who would be willing to pay to hunt buffalo.

Apparently the buffalo are still regularly harvested to provide meat to the café on the island, but judging from the number of tourists snapping shots next to me, they pay for themselves mainly by drawing tourists to the State Park.

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I had never heard of the Fielding Garr Ranch which operated from 1848 to 1981, but I figured at the very least that I could get a couple of shots that would let me play with Perfect Photo Suite 9’s filters.

I’m not exactly a history buff, but I had fun for an hour or so looking at the farmhouse, barns, equipment used over the years, and a considerable number of birds. You begin the tour in a small building that has a number of set pieces, like this.

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Then you’re free to wander through the house and immediate farm area where they have farm equipment used at different times, like this Case tractor.

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I had left my birding lens in the car, but after seeing all the birds I went back to the car to get it. When I returned with the lens, the only bird I could find was this Barn Swallow sitting on an old barbed wire fence.

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Still, I liked the shot enough that it seemed to justify the effort needed to walk up the hill and get the lens.

I doubt I’ll return to Antelope Island on my next trip to Utah as I surely will to Bear River, but it was a pleasant enough way to spend a couple of hours.