The Hummingbird Migration Has Begun And A Changing Bear River Bird Refuge

It’s been a while since I have posted anything on my blog. I initially started this blog to be solely about the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge but this year it has been extremely hard to find the kind of images and stories I like to capture and share since the refuge is currently undergoing some major habitat restoration work.

This habitat work, which is geared towards ridding the refuge of the invasive phragmite plant, has put much of the refuge in a dry, very dry situation so most of the birds have not been around the auto tour route to photograph this summer due to this extremely dry condition.

I will post more about this habitat work a bit later when I am finished going through the images I have taken related to these efforts to restore the natural balance of vegetation on the refuge.

As a result, I am going to add some general nature related topics to this blog I think are interesting. These topics may or may not have any direct relation to the refuge but they will be nature related as that is my preferred muse, per say.

The blog will continue to be mainly geared towards the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge but I am going to add this general nature related content, not necessarily from the refuge, at times, so I can keep posting and sharing what I find out in nature with my camera when things are a bit slow on the refuge, as they currently are now.

Fall migration is a grand spectacle, whether on the refuge or in our own backyards. I usually find myself on the refuge a lot this time of year searching for early migrating shorebirds and any other type of bird looking to head south a bit early but because of the current status of the refuge I find myself watching my own yard a lot more this summer and I am glad, too.

Today, in my backyard, I was able to observe and photograph for the first time ever, as far as I can recall, that is, an adult male rufous hummingbird. I see many immature rufous hummingbirds each fall but I cannot recal ever seeing a fully colored male in my yard until today.

The images aren’t the best, however. They are a bit noisy as I had to kick the ISO up to 800 so my camera would have even the slightest chance of stopping wing motion.

I had partly cloudy skies stealing some of my light but I was lucky enough to have a shutter speed of 1/3200 for these images. It wasn’t fast enough to fully stop motion but i did get a good enough image to post and share online to commemorate my first ever sighting of an adult male rufous in my yard.

Usually I try to get my shutter speed up to at least 1/4000 per second, and higher if lighting conditions will allow, but today I just didn’t have the light and I don’t like to shoot over 800 ISO because the noise becomes too much of a distraction for my taste.

They aren’t very artsy images and I really don’t like the disturbing dark, bland background or man-made objects included in the photograph but I didn’t want to pass up a chance to finally photograph a fully colored male rufous in my yard so I made some photography concessions and just photographed what I saw. Hopefully I will get more chances before this handsome male rufous hummingbird heads south.

Anyways, I appologize for not having much to blog about recently pertaining to the Bear River Migratoy Bird Refuge but it has been very hard to photograph on the refuge this summer.

I do, however, have a few refuge related stories in the works I think you as a reader will find interesting so stay tuned. I am still geared towards the refuge as the main subject here but at times I am going to have to fill in with other nature related stuff just to keep this blog going.

If you have concerns or questions about the habitat restoration on the refuge or anything related to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge you can find the refuge contact information on their website.

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