Great Horned Owls on the Farm

For perhaps twenty years now there has been at least one pair of nesting Great Horned Owls on the farm where I grew up near Cut Bank, Montana.  They were never there when I was a kid but they’ve sure taken to it since.   This farm still seems like home to me and I return to it at least once every year for a visit with family and of course to check up on the owls.  It’s the perfect place for these birds as it’s isolated, there are many old barns and granaries for the owls to find sanctuary and mice, voles and the ubiquitous Richardson’s Ground Squirrels (gophers) are everywhere.  Both the owls and I love the place! Great Horned Owl in a barn cutout Most often I prefer my birds on natural perches but there’s just something about owls and old barn wood that appeals to me.  I think owls, particularly Barn Owls and Great Horned Owls, often just seem to “fit” in many rustic settings.  In the image above, I like the warm tones of the bird contrasting with the cooler tones of the black background and some of the wood.  Juvenile (no “horns” yet) in warm, early morning light The youngster above was sitting in an east facing cutout in an old granary just as the sun came up.  The effect of the warm light on both bird and wood is fairly dramatic (no saturation added).  This juvenile is wet from the dew, thus the “spikiness” on the top of the head.  They look very different from the…

Continue reading

American Kestrels Rejecting Intestinal Tract of Prey

  Several times I have photographed American Kestrels discarding the intestinal tract of their prey.  The prey has always been a vole or mouse when I’ve seen it happen, though it may occur with small birds also.  I was surprised by this behavior.  Every time I’ve seen it happen has been during our harsh winters when I would assume every last morsel of food would be significant for their survival. Below is a series of photos where a female American Kestrel demonstrates the behavior with a vole kill. Female kestrel begins to pull small intestine out of a vole And deliberately drops it      The cecum? is discarded:  the intestine is still attached to the body and hanging down the side of the post   She pulls more intestine out of the vole   Breaks it loose from the body      And deliberately drops it to the ground   Finally, she pulls out the last of the small intestine, which she also dropped I know of others who have seen similar behaviors in other raptors – a variety of hawks and Osprey.  Several theories to explain it have been mentioned by bird photographers and others who have seen my photographs.  Among them: “These organs are filled with potentially harmful bacteria”.  Then how are many raptors, owls for example, able to consume their prey whole without harmful effect? “These organs are filled with food of low value to the kestrel (vegetative matter). Why fill up on carbs when it’s protein you need?  Begs  the question – Would they also discard intestines of insectivorous birds?  I don’t know……

Continue reading

A Bitter Lesson in Depth of Field

  I have spent many hours photographing Burrowing Owls over the past two summers but it’s a real challenge to get clear shots of them as they typically stay on the ground and are usually at least partially obscured by vegetation.  For me it’s a real coup to get one on an elevated, natural perch in good light. Last week I had a wonderful opportunity with them and simply blew it.  As we approached our “owl spot” we noticed that there were three of them perched up high on a sagebrush in beautiful early morning light.  I maneuvered my pickup for the best light angle I could get and to obtain separation of the owls from each other.  Everything perfect.  And all three birds gave us a variety of interesting poses for several minutes.  I had noticed that the owl on the left was perhaps a foot (or slightly less) closer to us than the other two birds so I was concerned about depth of field.  I seldom shoot multiple subjects and typically with only one bird I’m shooting at f/6.1 – f/8 depending on the situation.  Knowing I needed more DOF here I dialed in f/13 thinking that would be plenty to get all three birds sharp.   The image below is typical of the results I got.  Burrowing Owl – Canon 7D, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, 1/200, f/13, ISO 500, cropped to 77% of original image   The owl on the left is noticeably soft.  That is quite apparent at a larger image size, say 1200 pixels, though not quite so obvious at this…

Continue reading

The Short-eared Owls of Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge

  Male Short-eared Owl with a vole for the family  Red Rock Lakes NWR is simply a wonderful spot on this ol’ earth.  Located in SW Montana about halfway between Yellowstone National Park on the East and Interstate 15 on the west, it lies in a beautiful high elevation valley and the setting is stunning.  It’s not for the faint of heart though as the weather holds many potentially nasty surprises and the access to the refuge is primitive at best.  But that’s one of the things I love about Red Rock.    In late June we had the place mostly to ourselves, which is ideal for me.    Coyotes howling, other  mammals  in abundance, birds plentiful, wildflowers galore, spectacular mountain scenery, amazing sunrises and sunsets, weather surprises, bad roads to limit visitation, isolation and especially those incredible Short-eared Owls.   I love this place!    Female at the nest with one of two youngsters  On our second day there we found a pair of nesting Short-eared Owls with two youngsters.  The nest was at the base of a sagebrush within a few feet of a road.  I have a (very unscientific) theory as to why these birds would make their nest so close to a road with regular traffic.   Coyotes are very common on the refuge – we heard them howling often and would see them but they were seldom close to any road.   They seem to avoid roads whenever possible.   A nest on the ground would be very vulnerable to coyote predation.  So I wonder if the choice to build…

Continue reading

How I Photograph Birds

     Tripod shooting at the Great Salt Lake wetlands  Tripod shooting is certainly not my typical method of photographing birds.  My best estimate is that less than 10% of my bird photography is from a tripod.  When circumstances demand it however there’s simply no substitute for a sturdy but relatively lightweight tripod and a gimbal style head, especially for shooting birds in flight with my large, heavy lens.  Some folks are able to hand hold this lens for hours on end and get spectacular results.  I can’t, partly due to back problems.   Lens Cart   Because of back problems I can’t carry my heavy lens, camera body, tripod and associated gear further than about a mile.   To help solve that problem I came up with this lens cart.  It’s a  pull-type golf cart that I modified to be able to carry my heavy 500mm lens with attached body in the pack and my tripod with Wimberly head attaches under the “tongue” of the cart.   There’s room in the pack for other assorted gear and I often hang a water bottle and extra body with my 100-400mm zoom to the pack.  It’s very light and pulls effortlessly.  The wheels are large enough to handle fairly rough terrain.   The main limitation of this outfit is that it can’t negotiate tall vegetation or narrow paths between trees.  Without this cart some of my favorite birding spots would be unavailable to me.   My typical method of photographing birds  This is how I do most of my shooting – from…

Continue reading

Loggerhead Shrikes Impaling Prey

  Shrikes have been called “butcher birds” for their habit of impaling their prey (insects, small rodents, reptiles or birds) on thorns, barbed wire or other sharp projections.   They do it for several reasons.  It helps them to tear  the flesh into bite sized pieces, they use it as a method of caching (storing) their food and it helps them to survive eating the toxic lubber grasshopper because the toxins within the insect degrade to harmless substances within a couple of days.   I had never seen or photographed this behavior, or evidence of it,  until this summer when I did both several times.                         In the first  three photos below, this juvenile Loggerhead Shrike is practicing this instinctive behavior but the bird apparently isn’t very skilled at it yet as it had some difficulty impaling the dragonfly on the short thorn just below the insect.  In the first image the bird seems to be trying to decide which of several thorns to use for this grisly task.    Preparing to impale the dragonfly      Impaling the dragonfly on a thorn        The dragonfly has been impaled, though a little off-center.   In this case the bird didn’t wait long to begin eating the prey.  Here it has torn off the head and the front part of the abdomen with one pair of wings attached and is swallowing them.  As you can see, the rest of the insect is still impaled on the thorn.   Soon after this shot was taken the shrike removed the rest of the dragonfly from the thorn, flew with…

Continue reading