A few days ago, one of our readers here at Bear River Blogger reached out to me about helping get the word out about a monarch butterfly research project conducted in Blackfoot, Idaho through Washington State University in hopes of getting help from the public, especially those of us who love and want to help […]
I’ve been in full-blown monarch butterfly mode lately, and why not? It’s late August and here in northern Utah, we are at the peak time for finding monarch butterflies, caterpillars, and eggs. I’m observing monarch butterflies in my yard each and every day now, especially males patrolling my property as they fight over and guard
As a youngster who grew up on the outdoorsy end of the spectrum, me and my friends would spend hours exploring the nearby fields almost daily during summer, and as such, I was constantly coming home, well, quite dirty to say the least, much to the disapproval and frustration of my loving yet very patient
Don’t Overlook One Of The Lesser Known Nectar-Bearing Plants For Monarch Butterflies Read More »
Being a nature photographer by heart, I can typically be found with one of my Canon DSLR cameras somewhere nearby. Not always mind you, but I oftentimes do find it hard to leave home without at least one DSLR camera, a couple bags of photography gear and lenses, and a tripod or monopod for good
Maybe A Suitable Camera For Nature Photography Is Already In Your Back Pocket Read More »
It wasn’t what I expected when I started my bird-watching walk around the great blue heron rookery at Farmington Bay yesterday but I will tell you it was a most pleasant surprise, one that I am glad that I stumbled across by shear chance. I say by chance because the nature trail I took wasn’t
Bird Watching For Hummingbirds In A Wetland Was Certainly A First For Me Read More »
As I sit and write this blog post, the tv weatherman just mentioned another record broken in Utah. I really do hate to be the bearer of bad news but if you haven’t already heard, July was once again the hottest month on record here in the beehive state, breaking the previous mark set, well,
If you’ve been following the plight of the monarch butterfly over the past several years, you have heard their numbers have literally crashed, especially out here in the western United States. Where we once had millions of monarch butterflies decades ago, within the last several years the Xerces Society has counted less than a couple
So Can Small Backyard Gardens Actually Help Save The Monarch Butterfly? Read More »
It’s all quiet now but if you’ve ever been to the Farmington Bay great blue heron rookery during spring and early summer you will be treated to one of the best bird-watching opportunities in all of Utah. Each spring, usually starting sometime in March, great blue herons from all over the southern portion of the
Confession time here, I am a full-blown nature geek, through and through. Yes, I really do love bird watching as you might conclude from this blog, but truthfully, between you and me, I will also admit I love butterflies just as much. In fact, just about anything and everything in nature gets my juices flowing
Strike up a conversation with me about butterflies and you will quickly learn I consider the two-tailed swallowtail butterfly one of the most spectacular creatures on earth. And if truth be told here, there are very few other creatures on earth I would rather watch and especially photograph than the two-tailed swallowtail. So delicate yet
Summer is when the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge auto tour route literally comes alive, both audibly and visually, and a time when bird watching is usually at its best on the refuge some would claim. It’s not to say there isn’t good bird watching the rest of the year on the refuge because there
Probably the only thing more frustrating than my current mental block while trying to write for this blog as of late is my severe lack of skills for identifying birds on the fly. Yes, it’s true, I’m not very adept at bird identification unless I have my stack of birding books nearby and hours to
Due to having “too many pots in the fire”, I’ve recently decided to drop my actual photography website and start posting a little bit about nature photography here instead. It wasn’t a big loss mind you as I just didn’t have time to keep numerous websites up and running. Since photography is an important part
Trust Me, Even Small Edits Will Make Your Bird Photographs Better Read More »
I love a good challenge, especially with bird photography. It’s a large part of what keeps me coming back, time and time again, to try and capture decent photographs of birds in natural settings like Farmington Bay. Some wild birds are quite easy to photograph, like the yellow-headed blackbird, for example. They seem to have
Each summer, I look forward to doing a little bird watching and photography with the quirky little burrowing owls. Antelope Island State Park is the most well-known location to find burrowing owls in northern Utah but it’s not the best, at least in my opinion that is. And the reason for that is simple, the
The Burrowing Owls Have Once Again Returned To Promontory Mountain For The Summer Read More »
