Memories of Bear River, UT | shadeTreeImaging

Twice, I have cruised through the wetlands of Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. These fields, ponds and marshes lie at the northeastern margins of Utah’s Great Salt Lake. Following are notes from those visits.

2015-05-12 Two Days At Bear River

Yellow-Headed Blackbird - Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus — *Yellow-Headed Blackbird at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, 17 miles west of Brigham City Utah.*

The Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, west of Brigham City Utah is 80,000 acres of marsh, open water, uplands, and alkali mudflats. There is a one-way dirt track loop through the middle of the refuge that offers some good views into the various habitats where the Bear River drains into the Great Salt Lake. After my morning session at Antelope Island, I drove to this location. Not satisfied that I’d gotten what I could from this reserve, I returned the following morning.

A high point for me, though it did not produce high-quality images, was a meeting with a Sandhill Crane family group with two chicks (or ‘colts’). There were Red-Winged Blackbirds giving the cranes hell, relentlessly dive-bombing the crane’s head and back. The cranes were working the cat-tails and bulrushes along some grassy pastures, and perhaps they were a genuine threat to the blackbirds nesting there. I watched the drama for about an hour hoping the birds would wander closer, but they did not. It was a delightful visit none-the-less.

Some birds I photographed were American Avocet, American White Pelican, Barn Swallow, Brown-Headed Cowbird, California Gull, Canada Geese with young, Cinnamon Teal, Clark’s Grebe, Double-Crested Cormorant, Forster’s Tern, Great Blue Heron, Marsh Wren, Pied-Billed Grebe, Sandhill Crane, Red-Winged Blackbird, Western Grebe and Yellow-Headed Blackbird.

2017-08-16 Bear River

After showing Jerry and me the Promontory Road raptors in the early morning, our friend and local legend, master photographer Joe Ford, took us out to the Bear River Migratory Bird Reserve. While I’d visited this area in the spring of 2015, there really isn’t a limit on visits to such places. It will offer different treats each time.

For those who are not familiar with the reserve, the Bear River empties into the Great Salt Lake via a delta and wetland, partitioned by levies that alternate as flooded fields, ponds, and marshy grass fields. Shorebirds, waterfowl, pelicans, blackbirds, and swallows abound. Changing seasons mean the scenes and the avian occupants will be different depending on the time of year. I will need many more visits to decide which season is my favorite.