Category: Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge

Back On the Road

It’s been a long while since we’ve gone anywhere, but we are finally on the road to visit Bill and Alice in Arizona and Jeff and Debbie in Fresno. Of course, we had to break the trip up by stopping at favorite birding spots, starting at Bear River Migratory Refuge. We haven’t been there for two years, and we were surprised to find that there was an entirely different car route, one that was quite different from the old route. Luckily, we still saw most of the birds that we came here to see, like the White-Faced Ibis and the American Avocet.

Two wading birds standing in shallow water, one with dark plumage and the other with white and brown feathers, both peering at their reflections.

We got there later than usual, but that turned out to be relatively lucky because the reflections seemed unusually vivid, as in this shot of another White-faced Ibis.

A glossy ibis wading in shallow water, reflected in the surface, surrounded by tall reeds.

Although there were more Avocets, my personal favorite, than any other species, there was still a remarkable variety of other birds, like this male Ruddy Duck in breeding colors.

A swimming duck with a reddish-brown body and a blue bill glides across the calm water.

We also saw several Cinamon Teal.

A brown bird swimming in calm water among tall reeds.

However, we only saw one White Pelican, whereas we used to see up to a hundred on the old auto tour.

A white pelican gracefully floats on calm waters, with its distinctive long orange bill and a sleek body reflecting in the water.

We also saw far fewer Grebes than we usually saw on the other route, though that might also have something to do with the time of year we visited.

Leslie took all of these pictures and seemed more than happy with the new/temporary auto tour. The other people I talked to, regulars, seemed equally happy with it. Personally, I was a little disappointed, particularly by the lack of Grebes.

You Never Know What You’ll See at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge


Whenever Leslie and I visit a wildlife refuge both of us shoot photos out of both sides of the vehicle.  Most of the time we see roughly the same birds, but that definitely wasn’t true while visiting Bear River.  In fact Leslie was seeing birds on her side that I didn’t see either day, like this Night Heron,


this large flock of swallows,


this Snowy Egret,


and, more importantly, Grebes


with  babies.

Leslie was seeing so many more birds than I was seeing that she even volunteered to change sides with me.  I declined, but ended up trying to shoot photos out her window, but not always with the best of results.   

As frustrating as it can be when you don’t see birds that others have just seen on a refuge, it’s definitely part of the experience. Every visit to a magical place like Bear River, is a new experience.

Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge: A Photographic Journey


After several days, I finally narrowed the thousands of pictures Leslie and I took at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge over two days to just 520 photos.  Of course the hardest part is still ahead because I’m not about to post that many photos on my site.  Even more of a problem for me is how I want to organize them.  Sometimes I post Leslie’s photos first and mine later, but we actually shot a lot of the same shots. I also seriously thought about sorting them by species, but there are a lot more shots of Grebes than anything else, and I didn’t want to slight striking birds like this Yellow-headed Blackbird,


these White Pelicans, 


this baby American Coot,


this mother Coot, 


this male Ruddy Duck, 


or this Western Grebe.


Remarkably, all of these shots were taken by me in the first third of the Auto Route while Leslie was even busier taking photos of different birds from her side of the car.

Although the highlight of this visit had to be Grebes and their babies, much of the appeal of this place is the amazing variety of birds found here throughout the year.   

Timing is Everything When You’re Birding

I’ve never liked having family spread out across the country, especially before Leslie retired and there was never enough vacation to visit everyone. The one good aspect of Tyson and Jen  living in Colorado is that I’ve ended up seeing places I would never have seen if they didn’t live there.  I’m not going to drive 3,000 miles without  stopping and seeing local sights.  Historically, those have been places like Yellowstone, The Grand Tetons and national parks in Utah. 

In the last few years, though, I’ve always stopped at The Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge near Ogden, Utah, a favorite place to see American Avocets, White-faced Ibis and Grebes. Of course, what we see depends on when we get there. Last year was a little disappointing, but this year was definitely not.  

In fact, we saw American Avocets, 


White-Faced Ibis,


and, best of all, Wilson’s Phalaropes


before we even got to the refuge tour.

I haven’t seen Wilson’s Phalaropes for several years, so long that I can’t remember whether it was at Malheur or at Ocean Shores. 

As we were driving to the refuge I saw a car precipitously hanging off the edge of the road.  When I slowed down to see what was happening, I noticed a photographer with a 500 or 600 mm lens taking pictures of several birds in a very small pond right next to the road. As it turned out, we returned to this spot four different times in the two days we visited and got some of my favorite shots of the visit.

This auspicious beginning was followed by two days of exciting birding, and more than 2, 000 photographs — which I am still trying to process.