Author: Loren

Exploring Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge

When visiting National Wildlife Refuges, it’s easy to forget that, no matter how long the auto tour is, you are only seeing a small part of the refuge, and there’s no way of knowing what the habitat is like in other parts of the refuge. Our recent trip to Bear River was a good reminder of that.

As Chat GPT points out, “Interestingly, the alternate route goes through areas usually closed to the public, including the O-Line and D-Line canal roads closer to the Great Salt Lake itself. That may actually provide some unusual birding opportunities this spring and summer, especially for nesting shorebirds like avocets and stilts.” It was right on both points.

We saw more ducks than I can remember seeing on previous trips, and some we had never seen there before. I suspect part of the reason for that is that the water was shallower than on the old auto tour. Consequently, we got a lot closer to ducks like this pair of Gadwalls,

Two ducks swimming in a tranquil pond, surrounded by tall grasses.

this male Northern Shoveler,

A male duck with a green head and brown body swimming in a calm water scene surrounded by tall, dry reeds.

and this male Ruddy Duck,

A brown duck with a blue bill swimming in a calm waterbody, surrounded by tall reeds.

who didn’t seem to want his picture taken.

A bird taking off from the water, creating splashes as it lifts off, with tall grasses in the background.

It’s easy to see why some visitors, particularly those who live nearby and visit often, would find the temporary, alternate auto tour even better than the regular auto tour.

I’ll have to admit that I thought that the reeds provided a spectacular backdrop for some of these shots.

Golden Moments at Bottle Beach: A Birdwatcher’s Delight

Although the first part of our evening visit to Bottle Beach didn’t go too well, photographically speaking, things got much better near the end of our visit. It probably wasn’t a whole hour, but it was definitely golden, and the photographs taken were spectacular — or at least they seemed that way to me.

None of the Marbled Godwits I saw not too long ago in Bodega Bay looked nearly as golden as this Godwit did.

A bird with a long beak foraging in shallow water, reflecting the surrounding environment.

Normally, I try to avoid extremely dark backgrounds, but here it seems to accentuate the gold colors in the Godwit, the Dowitchers,

Two shorebirds wading in shallow water, with their reflections visible in the water.

and the Dunlin.

Three shorebirds foraging in shallow water, with distinctive brown and white plumage, casting reflections in the wet surface.

And the later it got, the more golden the moment became

Three shorebirds foraging in shallow water, reflecting in the surface.

until it was time to go back to the motel before returning to the beach at the next high tide, 7:00 AM the following morning.

Photography Challenges at Bottle Beach During Migration

When I went to Bottle Beach on May 5th, I knew that our timing was less than desirable because we would only see birds as high tide arrived, and high tide was after sunset. Of course, I also knew that this was the only time we could be there during the Spring Migration, so I was willing to take my chances with the light and the tide.

Bottle Beach is relatively flat, so the tide comes in quite slowly at first and then comes rushing in as it rises. As a result, most of the first shots were taken at a considerable distance with the sun behind the birds, which resulted in less than desirable results, as in this shot of a Whimbrel, one of the birds I had hoped to see on our visit.

A Whimbrel walking on the sandy shoreline at Bottle Beach during low tide.

I quickly realized I would have to lower the shutter speed if I wanted the best pictures possible. I did get better photos of shorebirds that were feeding, but it also meant that I ended up with blurry photos when birds took flight, as in this shot of a Dowitcher.

A Dowitcher bird in mid-flight, showcasing its golden plumage against a blurred background.

Before long, it was getting dark enough that most of the shots, especially those taken at a distance, were underexposed. Black-Bellied Plovers in breeding colors are one of my favorite shorebirds, and it’s special to get a shot of one that has just caught a giant worm, but I couldn’t correct the exposure on this shot to make it any better

A Black-Bellied Plover standing in shallow water holding a large worm in its beak.

and I had the same problem with this shot of a Red Knot, which was good enough that Merlin could identify it as a Red Knot, but wasn’t good enough that I’m going to save it after this.

A shorebird walking on the wet sand at sunset, with a blurred bird in the background.

Although I was disappointed with most of the pictures that I took that evening, that wasn’t true of all of them, particularly those taken when the tide was almost fully in and I could take shots of birds that were behind me, with the sunlight coming over my shoulder.

The light seemed particularly suited to Dowitchers in breeding color, playing up their already golden plumage.

A bird with a long beak foraging in shallow water, showcasing its reflection on the surface.

I would have loved the experience if not a single picture had turned out. True, there weren’t as many birds as there had been in the previous two weeks, there wasn’t even the same number of birds I’ve seen on previous visits, but neither were there crowds of people.