Category: Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge

Our trip to Bear River has been long enough ago that it seems more like a memory than an immediate experience, so I’ll wrap it up with four of Leslie’s shots that haven’t already been included.

We saw many goslings, but this was a favorite shot.

We also saw a lot of White-Faced Ibis, but this shot does a better job of showing off its varied colors than most of the others.

Hard to pick out a best shot of a Black-Necked Stilt since all the shots seemed show them foraging.

We generally take Northern Shovelers for granted, but this shot serves as a reminder of just how striking they are.

Pretty amazing how many shots we got on a “disappointing” trip.

Since we didn’t see a single grebe with babies, we wondered if the grebes we saw in pairs were courting.

That made us wonder if this strange lifting of their legs

was part of a courtship ritual.

Nope. A little online research revealed that this behavioris called “foot-shipping” and is even used by chicks to warm themselves. Makes sense since the water is cold and the rest of the body is insulated by feathers.

While watching the Forster Tern diving at the Bear River headquarters I heard a very unusual sound coming from a nearby post and looked around to see this Great-Tailed Grackle, a bird I’ve never even heard of before.

Clearly preoccupied with the circling tern, it ignored me as I snapped shots.

When it finally noticed me, it took off, clearly showing why it is named Great-Tailed.

I seldom stop at the Bear River Migratory Refuge headquarters, but I was fascinated by the birds we saw there on this trip, particularly this Forster’s Tern.

I particularly liked the symmetry of this shot,

but there were so many good shots that I found it hard to choose between them.

Heck, I was even happy when the tern landed nearby and seemed to scold me for interfering with its hunting.