Refuge Tuesday

 The sky was mostly cloudy with some sun filtering in from the south. Regardless, the sky backgrounds were mostly boring. 

Mostly duck hunters out with a couple of birders. Not a lot of gunfire so apparently ducks weren't flying or flying low. 

Lots of Juvenile Red-tailed hawks sitting around and often looking goofy. Several pheasants came out of hiding and one Kingfisher.

I had two cameras, a rental that I was trying out and my old one. You may see the same bird twice in the photos below as I took photos to compare the two cameras. Fortunately the hawks were not in a hurry, to the point that one waited about 30 minutes for me to come back and get a clearer photo of it.

Here's my favorites.....

Morning at the Zoo

 Randy and I visited the zoo today. Winter hours - opens at 10am - lot of parents with kids and some grandparents. 

The visit was a bit shorter than previous ones, however I took some good photos! Sunshine and cool weather made for a perfect time to visit.

Here's my favorites from the day..

American Badger - with a mouse tail sticking out of its mouth.

The beautiful Eagle..

Cutes!  Burrowing owl..

Young giraffe saying HI..

Looking soft and pettable ... Grey fox

Sunbathing or showing off?.

River otter - Cute and intelligent..

Big boy, who is normally swimming, getting a tan!

Look at those Tusks!!! Warthogs can outrun you...

Refuge visit

 Yesterday was a nice day to visit the refuge..no human traffic but unfortunately not much wildlife traffic. But enough to make it interesting, plus just being there is relaxing.

Pheasants were out in force! I saw several males in the various bushes along the way, and on the way out I watched 4 of the males in  the road doing what appeared to be fighting. Unfortunately I was quite a ways away and the photos are challenging. But I’ll show you what I have.

Lots of Western Grebes - noisy little buggers - and a couple of groups of pelicans practicing synchronized swimming as they fished 

Enjoy!

This guy waited until I saw him and then waited until I took his photo.  Beautiful!

Here’s the pheasants in the road..I’m not sure what the dance means, whether they are fighting or mating!

Here are the Pelicans -- first preparing to fish, then fishing. Note the followers in the top photo - Western 

grebes and ducks - they catch a lot of what the Pelicans stir up..

An unknown duck..

The Great Blue Heron - waiting patiently by the stream...

A stern-looking beautiful hawk, tentatively identified as a Red-tailed Hawk..they have a large number of very different colored Morphs..

Antelope Island visit

 Randy and I got to the island as the sun was just rising. Cool morning, clear skies. People were already up and about on the island...bird watchers, bicyclists, hikers, campers. 

We saw lots of buffalo! Probably a couple of hundred overall. With the sun just rising they made a nice silhouette photo. After stopping for photos of them, a beautiful big buck walked out of the brush just behind us. Gorgeous rack, not too bothered by the humans close by. 

The Burrowing owls were MIA, but the antelope came through. A male with a harem of 4 paraded for us for photos, and we saw several in the distance. One coyote made its appearance, very nicely backlit by the rising sun. Overall a good day!

Enjoy!

Morning light on the landscapes...

Quite the rack on this big boy!

Male antelope watching one of his harem..he had 4 females..

Bison!

We watched these two goofballs run down the hill following their Momma! There is a truck stopped behind them...for a time I thought there might be a collision.

And the Hunter..always a treat to see a coyote..

Looking towards the Wasatch mountains, you can see the fence that was installed to keep the bison on the island when the lake level is so low they could walk to the mainland..

Trip to the zoo, page 2..

Too many photos for one blog post..Here’s the rest of them ..

Warthog..ugly but dangerous

Spoonbill..beauty in motion

Young snow Leopard...he played with his sister while we watched..

Mama Snow leopard...hanging out while the kids play..

The Queen ....

Wild looking fox!!

Perfect for July 4th..