Red Tail Hawk & Baby

My mom & sister gave me a heads up on a large nest in Lehi.

It is on the edge of a neighborhood by a small field and very busy road.

(click on any picture to enlarge to see better)

I had no idea there was a baby in there. You had to look pretty hard to see it's

little head poking up. It was really high up.

The baby spread open it's wings and I could not tell where it's head was.

I could only see the one.

Tiny little head poking up.

This picture amazes me. This is the 3rd picture I took of just the nest.

I did not realize how out of focus it was until I got home and

to my surprise I had taken a picture of the baby.

I could not see it in the camera until later when I was closer.

Yes, she was screaming at me. This was the closest I got which was still across the street.
I do love hearing them though.

Yellow Headed Black Birds

I guess these are pretty common...?

In Utah at least.

This is my first time to see them.

They look cool, sound cool & there were lots of them.

But, I am glad they are not in my neighborhood kind of bird.

I would not want to wake up to hearing this! (click on Listen at top under description)

Another fun find today.

Pelicans

I did not expect to really see anything today.

I guess that is the best way to experience things is to be unexpected.

We were just standing by the lake watching the fish jump and in comes a Pelican.

Then, a second and a third.

They are big!

I never knew I would see Pelicans in Utah.

The kids and I were at Lindon Marina by the Geneva Settling ponds.

Elk Calf

My little guy and I were on a walking path on

the benches of the mountain

when we started to follow a small trail through the trees

about 10 feet back.

Not wanting to go any further we turned around and saw this.

It was sound asleep at first but our movement woke it up.

It was about 10 feet away from us.

It just stayed there and stared. I had no idea

where the mother was

or would not be able to see it coming before it was too late,

so we left pretty quickly.

It was so sweet.

I have never seen a baby elk before.

It was exciting to see it in the wild.

Baby Bunny

This is one of my favorite places to be.

Bagnell Dam area.

Beautiful all year round, but especially in the Summer months.

Driving along a back dirt road this cute,

really tiny one ran across in front of us.

Of course the pictures don't do it justice,

but I could have easily cupped it in my hands.

Sitting Pretty

Red Tail Hawk

Bottle Feeding The Calf

4 day old calf.

This poor little guy was a twin and the mother chose the other one.

It was so fun to get to help bottle feed it though.

Look how tiny he is next to my little guy.

Big Horn Sheep

Our family was sledding close by here when we finally realized they were there.

At first, I kept hearing a dog. So I thought. Then I realized it was a coyote.

It was going on and on.... It did not stop yelping. I am guessing it was calling out to others because it found food. I wished I had my binoculars. It sounded really close by and I could tell the direction it was coming from.

We went down a hill a bit when I finally spotted them.

I ran and got my camera from the car. I am guessing we scared the coyote off when we got closer. My husband took all of the close up shots. He found some tall grass to hide behind.

They kept hearing him and looking his direction, but did not seem to care
It would be fun to go back and find them with binoculars to read there tags.
It's cool to see the GPS collars on them.

This was a fun experience to be so up close in the wild.

By the way... They are on the top of the golf course on the edge of the mountain. Of course there is great green grass under all that snow.

Bald Eagles

Just Amazing.

Meal time....

These were actually taken last year right around this time.

From sometime in December til sometime in Feb. or March the Bald Eagles come to the Dam by the dozens. It was so fun to watch them, stand right under them, and close by.

They are really so magnificent.

I have found, the colder the day the more likely you will see them flying around. The earlier in the morning helps also.
This is a Juvenile. I believe they take about 2 years to get their full color.

This is only about half of what I saw when I first drove up. The trees were full. I counted close to 40 Eagles on this day. There had to be more that I missed.

I am sure I might have a few better pictures than some of these. When you have over 100 of the same bird scattered, it's hard to sort through them.

I will sure miss being able to see them. My kids sure enjoyed it just as much as I did.

Chipmunk

This was from last July.

I found that if I randomly threw seed on the deck

a chipmunk would find it's way up the stairs to it.

They didn't seam to mind each other.

We watched it's cheeks grow and...

grow, and grow. Until there just couldn't be any more room.

It would leave, go to it's underground hiding spot (the underground rain spout)

Then, come back for more. Sometimes it would even get close enough to come peer in the back door windows. I love chipmunks!

Being Chased

Us, being chased after...
Them, being chased after...
I have never seen this one variety of geese before that I remember.
I thought they were very pretty.
Turns out, we were being chased after for the want of food.
Good thing we scared them off before they realized we didn't have anything.