This is a second photo from the area right in front of the restaurant patio of Pico Bonito Lodge that lies on the edge of the Pico Bonito National Park on the Pacific Slope of Honduras.

The Green Honeycreeper lives throughout Central America as well as areas throughout the northern half of South America.

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I have struggled to capture a proper image of a merlin for years--too dark, too distant, a poor pose. I was out looking for a Sandhill Crane nest after the property owner told me they see cranes with young (colts) every year. Didn't find the nest, but I did notice a pair of Merlins shooting around. The cloud cover created a mild sense of murky shadow.

Merlins nest across nearly all of Alaska and Canada. This area of northern Michigan is the very southern edge of its nesting territory. They do migrate through the entire US and winter in the West and very south, so they can be spotted virtually anywhere. And I have seen them twice in my yard.

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I found this guy outside of Laramie, Wyoming--another target of a Western bird I had hoped to capture more successfully than I had several years prior.

This bluebird is a cavity nester and his bird house is a couple feet to the left. He and mom were busy bringing worms and other delectables to the youngsters. They would land for a moment on posts and snags before delivering their prey to the nestlings, which I appreciated because I could snap away rather plentifully.

And I took this photo from the vehicle, an ideal bird blind when happening upon handsome birds.

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Four years ago when I was last in Utah, I found many short-eared owls in the Bear River National Refuge. This year, I didn't find any. This species can be itinerant, so hopefully their absence from Bear River isn't a harbinger of ill fortune. (I might also have simply not crossed paths with the owls while there).

However, I did learn that a few shorties had been spotted in the Golden Spike National Historic Area, which is an expansive preserve of vast nature about 40 miles west of Brigham City.

After a bit of wandering and driving up and down a gravel road just beyond the Visitor Center, I found two of them, one of which stayed perched on this fence post long enough for me to roll up and snap a few frames from my vehicle.

This bird and two others stayed in this area the entire evening and the next morning. I suspect they were comfortable in this territory. Hardly any people and only a few cars driving by.

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I am back from a trip out West. I had several targets for both my Life List as well as my Photographer's List. And I am happy to have captured most of those targets.

I have seen this species before; I have also photographed it. But I hoped I could do better, so I put this on my target list for my summer trip through Wisconsin, Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado.

I found this particular bird at my campsite in a campground in the mountains east of Salt Lake City approximately two minutes after parking. This was one of the dominant species in the woods there. I heard its call and quickly saw three of this warbler darting about.

Notice its similarity to the Mourning Warbler, which has no eye ring. Its call is, of course, also different from the MW.

One of six Western warblers I was able to photograph in Utah.

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