Hard to be bored!

Feeling kinda blah yesterday afternoon so we took a ride over to the Stansbury mountains close to sunset to pep ourselves up. Today I drove back from SLC and took some photos of birds. In between captured some shots of the two horses next door - beautiful animals.
Enjoy!

Driving home on Hwy 36 just past Lake Point and captured this hawk, then was surprised by the GBH in the field - wonderful!

Stansbury Island continues to attract me - the light on the ridges and shadows and sky and ......

Our neighbors have a couple of horses and the sun was just setting as I walked down the road with my camera.

Taking photos of the horse above and this one was very curious - maybe after a treat!

Diana and I were out on the deck and it happened - a murmuration right over the top of us! The sky was filled with starlings and it was like being in another world!

Couldn't pass on this guy - so representative of the fierceness of the hawks. He was hanging on tight in about a 15 mph wind also! When he flew away he just opened his wings and the wind carried him away - gorgeous.

Friday

It is sometimes hard to remember what day it is but I know today is Friday 'cause Thanksgiving always comes on a Thursday!
Really wonderful light this morning as well as lots of finches and sparrows on our deck railing.

Neither of us have seen finches with the orangey-red down the back - wonder if we just weren't paying attention all these years.

Sometimes a scene is worth looking at both horizontally as well as vertically.

Happy Thankfulness Day!

For today's post I took a trip down memory lane, looking at the photos from Erda starting in March of this year. My desire was to find one photo that would capture all the things I am thankful for - instead I got to see how many things I have been blessed with and am thankful for during these last 8 months.  Despite the hard work, the sore muscles, and the nagging thought that "Did we bite off more than we can chew?" I am thankful for this time and these experiences. I woke up today - as a friend of mine says "On the right side of the dirt!" - and am thankful for that.
Much beauty surrounds us here amidst the quiet of the high desert and surrounding mountains. My choice for today is the Bullock's Oriole - the incredible beauty of the bird was totally unexpected and breathtaking every time we saw one.
Enjoy!

More of Skull Valley

Cloudy days do tend to bring out the saturation in colors and if you can get up above the landscape just a little you can see some of the fascinating patterns that both Nature and man make. Here's some shots from the day trip.

A long, lonely road --- with a horse in the middle of it!!

Sometimes these mountains look like water washed down them and made them smooth - quite different when you get up closer.

How many have ever seen a 'bone tree', one that drops bones all around!

Looking toward Carr Fork, the old Anaconda mine and smelter canyon, on the west side of the Oquirrh's.

Bits of history and other fun things!

Stormy and rainy day yesterday so Murphy and I took a ride - really because we wanted to get out and because light and clouds can be fantastic during storms. We got a little wet at Horseshoe Springs during our walk in the rain, but then  the rain pretty much stopped and we had a great time.
There's a lot of history in these desert valleys and it is fun exploring and learning.  Here's some from yesterday.

First a couple of views of Stansbury Island in the morning sun.

Here is the Stansbury mountains in the morning sun.

The back side of the Iosepa sign on Skull Valley Road. Google Iosepa and read the history sometime.

These two and several others were messing around on the road to Dugway just before the Lincoln Highway cutoff.

The plaque and then a 180 view from the point. Man, the wind was horrific up here, had to hid behind rocks to get a steady shot!

Oquirrhs on the right and Stansbury mountains on the left - you'll want to click on this photo to see it better.

Farmers Market

As you might expect, in a rural agricultural area like Tooele Valley, there are a number of farmer's markets every Saturday. One that we frequented was just up the road at the Tooele Valley Nursery and we found organic crops, great sausage, and good conversation.  Here's a couple of shots from a Saturday.

More Birds

You can usually find at least 4 hawks between Lakepoint and Stansbury - so I pulled over yesterday and snapped a couple of photos.

Looking back through

I'm going back through photos to delete those that I have multiple copies of or otherwise will not use. As I looked through the Timpie Springs WMA photos from a couple of weeks ago, I found these that have a simplicity and peacefulness to them, yet share a part of the beauty of the refuge with us. I hope you enjoy also.

A cold gloomy fall day!

Despite threatening skies and light that required me to add +1.5 stops to the camera in order to get any kind of a decent photo, Murph and I meandered around the countryside.  Not too far because the wind was cold and I got hungry :-) but far enough to get some photos of the day.
We start with another red-tailed hawk, then a raven and then landscape photos - the Indian statue is up at the end of the road of South Willow Canyon. Interesting what you find in the back of the beyond.

Murphy looking for rabbits!

Hawk in sunlight in distant valley.

Love clouds!

Looking toward Deseret Peak in the Stansbury Mountains.

Look closely and you may see a bird painted on his upper lip!

Red-tailed Hawk

Murph and I stopped to photograph this hawk yesterday - and he flew from his perch on the power pole. Since much of their beauty is only seen when they open their wings, I thought you might enjoy seeing how this one looked.

Murmuration

A flock of starlings is called a murmuration. You may have seen examples on the internet of some incredible scenes of thousands of birds flying together. Mine is not that glorious, but it is the largest I have seen out here so far. Hopefully more will occur AND I'll be here with a camera!

The house finches are another story - here they are all huddled on the deck in the colder weather.

The light and shadows are fantastic this time of year!

Beginner's luck

Here's some shots that I made during the first year I took up shooting somewhat seriously..and darn, if they aren't bad at all. I was also into putting frames around them in Photoshop! But I had fun and was using a 6 Megapixel camera and a 70-300 kit lens. Nice to look back and realize that sometimes what we think we know gets in the way of just taking nice photos.

In 2007 when these photos were taken, there were Bald Eagles and GBH's everywhere in the cold weather. Not anymore - perhaps climate change has altered their habits.