Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge

Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in Northern Utah is an amazing place. About 300 species of birds occupy these wetlands during the year in numbers that range from 12 to 18 million birds. I have made three trips in the last three months -- my goal is to go at least once a month during the next year and photograph the seasonal activities of the birds as they migrate through the area.

An avocet foraging for food in the late afternoon of early October.

Three cormorants relaxing on a log.

An image to fill your soul.

Animals of Yellowstone

On a recent trip to Yellowstone National Park, I was fortunate enough to see many animals in their native and natural habitat -- doing what wild animals do -- survive as best they can. We sometimes forget the circle of life that goes on in nature. For a bear or wolf to remain healthy they must find the appropriate meal -- either by hunting and killing another animal or feasting on the remains that other predators have left behind.

Here are a few of the animals of Yellowstone.

A red-tail hawk sits watchfully in a tree searching for his next meal.

A prong-horned antelope runs free.

A healthy bull elk surveys the pre-dawn mountainside.

A lone wolf is moving in on an abandoned elk carcass.

Success!

An eagle moves in to share the bounty.

Two wolves move in to challenge a black bear who has also smelled the carcass. They think better of it and leave.

Stocking up on protein to build winter fat.

I enjoyed watching and photographing the animals of Yellowstone. I saw many species of waterfowl, raptors, birds of the field and  many healthy mammals. The beauty of the park never ceases to amaze me and the circle of life continues.

Early October at Shoshone Falls on the Snake River in Idaho

I recently took a day trip to Shoshone Falls, near Twin Falls, Idaho. The falls change from year to year and month to month, depending on the amount of water flowing in the Snake River. I am presenting three of my images for your enjoyment.

Sometimes called the "Niagara of the West," Shoshone Falls is 212 feet (64.7 m) high -- 36 feet (10.97 m) higher than Niagara Falls -- and flows over a rim 900 feet (274 m) wide.

A park overlooking the waterfall is owned and operated by the City of Twin Falls. Shoshone Falls is best viewed in the spring as diversion of the Snake River for irrigation often significantly diminishes water levels in the summer and fall.

Shoshone Falls has existed at least since the end of the last ice age, when the Bonneville Flood carved much of the Snake River canyon and surrounding valleys. It is a total barrier to the upstream movement of fish. The falls were the upper limit of sturgeon, and spawning runs of salmon and steelhead could not pass the falls. Yellowstone cutthroat trout lived above the falls in the same ecological niche as Rainbow Trout below it. Due to this marked difference, the World Wide Fund for Nature used Shoshone Falls as the boundary between the Upper Snake and the Columbia Un-glaciated freshwater eco-regions.