Bear River 2024
While going to visit a dear friend in Oregon, I was able to revisit two migratory bird refuges, Bear River and Bear Lake during the breeding season.
I stopped at both refuges beginning my trip for a week, and two weeks later again for a second week on the return trip.
Bird behavior was the goal, and I experienced an abundance
Ospreys
I encountered about 3 breeding pairs.
The ones pictured are mainly from one very active
couple. They used a refuge platform to build a nest.
Thefemale predominately sitting on the eggs. The male hunting daily to supply both of them with fish.
Typically the male would eat the head portion of the
catch and then hand off the nicely cleaned back half to it's mate, who would take it away from the nest to eat!
Western Grebes
Western grebes were also breeding and provided many instances to study their behavior.
Courtship includes several pictures from 2009, where I was fortunate to experience "The Dance" a couple of times (however my camera was much more primative at the time). Included was another courtship behavior that presented this trip !
A beautiful species with much interaction!
