Category: Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge

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.   

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. 

We went to Broomfield to see Sydney’s soccer team play in the state playoffs and Zoe’s high school graduation. We stopped at Bear River on the way to find American Avocets after failing to find any in California a few weeks before. We took so many Avocet pictures at Bear River, that we certainly didn’t need any more. 

So, what did we see on our first walk in Broomfield?  American Avocets, naturally. Knowing how many pictures I already had to go through, I mentally hesitated to take more shots of them, but, as always, I found it impossible to resist taking yet another shot.  

Somehow it just seems wrong not to take at least one shot when I see a beautiful bird, 

and if the bird takes off, naturally you have to record what the wings look like in flight, mentally comparing them to  Black-necked Stilts’ wings.

And if you happen to see another Avocet standing next to a Canada Goose you have to get a shot to get a sense of an Avocet’s size, something that’s quite difficult to do in a photo.

Luckily, it isn’t until you get home and sit down at the computer that you realize how many shots you have taken and how long it will take to pick the best shots from those taken and adjust them to end up with the best picture possible.

I visit the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge as often as possible to see the American Avocets, Black-necked Stilts, White-faced Ibis and White-faced Ibis, Grebes, and Forster Terns, but whenever I visit I’m reminded that there is so much more to see there.

For instance, we were greeted by this Franklin Gull (which I admittedly confused with the Bonaparte Gull that I used to see regularly at Malheur).

We occasionally see Curlew on the beach in California during the winter, but I can usually count on seeing one or two at Bear River.

We saw Cinnamon Teal at the Sacramento NWR on our trip to Arizona, but I will never miss a chance to get a shot as close-up and as beautiful as this.  

I see a lot more Brown Pelicans than White Pelicans, but it’s hard to miss seeing them at Bear River since they congregate at both the entrance to the auto tour and on the ponds on the far side of the refuge.

The Yellow-headed Blackbird’s raucous call makes them hard to miss.

Although I don’t remember ever seeing a Western Kingbird on the refuge itself, they commonly line the road to and from the refuge (and sometimes they will even sit still long enough to get a shot after you stop and retrieve your camera).

It’s probably a good thing I don’t live in Brigham City or I would spend all my time on the refuge and never have time to put together blog entries.