A Little Utah Wildlife

This weekend, my son and I spent some time wandering the the west desert.  Calling it a desert doesn't do the area justice as it's really a pretty fantastic area.  Though it's really dry and desolate, there are a lot of springs that provide water for a lot of wildlife that calls the area home.  We managed to get rain for most of the trip, so the wildlife we did find was pretty wet and soggy.

This area is home to some pretty big herds of wild horses.  We did see several herds, but they were a long way off.  The exception was this guy.

We spent a bit of time wandering the Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge.  This place is in the middle of the desert and has around 10,000 acres of marshes.  There were birds everywhere.

Someone was really creative when they named these guys.  These are Yellow Headed Blackbirds.  There were a lot of them around and they make a ton of noise.  They were fun to watch.

These guys are Black Crowned Night Herons.  There were a number of them around, and they were very skittish.

There were also a lot of these American Avocets.  It was fun to watch them foraging for bugs.

  

As we were leaving the preserve, we came across this Osprey hanging out in the top of an old tree.

After leaving the preserve, we continued our wander and ended up passing through the thriving metropolis of Callao.  All twelve houses.  As we were coming into town, we happened upon a herd of Turkey Vultures.  They were all hanging out with their wings spread.  My assumption is that they were trying to dry off.  It was pretty funny to watch them.

As we worked our way through town, we happened upon these two.  It would appear that they weren't too happy with the weather.

Probably the most prevalent animal we saw were antelope.  They were everywhere.  This guy was hanging out near the road and was pretty content to let us grab a few shots before he took off.