Northern Harrier with Nesting Material

 I’ve been photographing Northern Harriers in northern Utah for five years now and until earlier this week I’d only seen this species carrying nesting material once before and wasn’t able to photograph it.   Harriers are very common here during winter but most of them head north for the breeding season and those that stay usually build their nests in inaccessible areas of the marsh, so it’s rare for me to see any nesting activities.      Canon 7D, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 400 Two days ago Mia and I were photographing birds at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.  We were about to call it a day because it was late in the morning and light was no longer optimal when we spotted this harrier flying at a distance.  We figured it would veer off before it got close, as they always seem to do out there, but this one kept coming toward us.  We were watching it through our lenses and soon noticed that it had nesting material in its beak.    Canon 7D, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 400 By chance we happened to be at a place on the dirt road that was within 100′ or so of the  nest of this bird.  It decided to ignore us and come in to complete its delivery.     Canon 7D, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 400 The nest is apparently in this bed of last year’s dead Phragmites.  The dark spots you see in the last three images of this…

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Willet Wars

Earlier this week Mia and I witnessed an incredible display of avian aggression on Antelope Island.  I’ve often seen and photographed battling birds but I’ve never before seen such a long-lasting and vicious fight as this one between two Willets.  It lasted for over 20 minutes and I took 413 photos of the action but don’t expect high quality images in this post as the conditions were far from ideal.  We had contrasty sidelight, lots of obstructingvegetation between us and the birds and constantly changing lighting conditions as clouds moved in and out and the birds moved from place to place as the battle raged.  But as I’ve stated before on this blog I’ll often post images of interesting behaviors even if they are less than perfect in image quality.  And to me this behavior was certainly interesting.    Canon 7D, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, 1/1600,  f/5.6, ISO 500 The Willets were already fighting as we approached them in my pickup and they mostly ignored us after pausing for a  few seconds when we first drove up.       Canon 7D, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, 1/1250,  f/5.6, ISO 500 In this and the following image the bird on the right had its bill tightly clamped on the upper mandible of the other bird.     Canon 7D, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, 1/1250,  f/5.6, ISO 500 The bird on the left was desperately trying to break the grip of its tormentor but it took some struggling before it finally succeeded.       Canon 7D, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, 1/1250,  f/5.6, ISO…

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Barn Owl in Flight – Finally Again!

It’s been over four years since I’ve been able to get flight shots of Barn Owls and it’s been a very long wait.   Typically Barn Owls hunt only at night but during the cruel winter of 2008 a few of them were forced to hunt in the morning hours just to survive and I was able to get quite a few nice shots of them in flight.  I haven’t seen them hunt in daylight since then, until just recently when I’ve discovered one individual that has been doing it regularly.    1/800, f/6.3, ISO 500 So far Mia and I have had two chances with this bird.  It was flying along the side of the road so I had to speed up to get in front of the owl then quickly turn around so I could photograph it as it flew toward us with the light at the best angle.   This owl was flying very fast toward an apparent destination (rather than hunting) so we’d get a few shots off as it passed by very quickly.     1/640, f/6.3, ISO 500 Then I’d very quickly turn around, race up the road to get ahead of the owl, turn around again and fire away as the bird flew by.     1/800, f/6.3, ISO 500 I was able to do that three times before I ran out of road.  Very exciting!      1/800, f/5.6, ISO 640 Then a few days later, as we were returning from a morning of photographing other birds after clouds had moved in and we…

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A Loggerhead Shrike, a Spider and Spit

 A few days ago Mia and I found this Loggerhead Shrike sitting prettily on a dried sunflower on Antelope Island.  The bird was using the sunflower as a hunting perch.    1/1600, f/8, ISO 500 I’ve always been amazed by the incredible eyesight of many bird species.  This shrike somehow spotted a spider crawling through the thick grass about 20 feet away from where it was perched and immediately flew down to grab it.      1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 500 It was a relatively small spider and I have no idea how the shrike was able to see it in all the dense grass.  Even though the background is busy here I still liked the shot for the interesting look at both the spider and the tongue of the shrike.  It’s my presumption from looking at this photo that the saliva of the shrike is viscous and sticky, enabling the prey to stay attached to the tongue during the very fast process of pulling the spider to the back of the throat with the tongue.      1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 500 A heavily cropped, close-up view of the same image provides a clue.  You can see that there’s a sheet of saliva stretched between the bottom of the tongue and the floor of the lower mandible and it does appear to be quite viscous.  I had no idea that it would be so “juicy” in there.  Nothing earth-shattering here, just some avian trivia  in a photo that I found interesting (yes, my interests can be…

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Early Spring Birds and Craziness on Antelope Island

 Typically our first spring camping trip is a shake-down cruise for the trailer to Antelope Island.  If anything goes wrong with the trailer (and it sometimes does after sitting all winter) I’ll be relatively close to home.  This year we spent the last two days of March on the island.  Most of the photos in this post were taken on that trip.   1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 500  There’s been a few Western Meadowlarks on the island for much of the winter but they’ve returned in large numbers now.  In all my travels in the west I don’t think I’ve ever seen any other area with such a high concentration of this species.   At times their beautiful song resonates all over the hills of the island.  Meadowlarks always bring back fond memories for me of growing up on the Montana farm.      1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 500 Loggerhead Shrikes are another very common species, especially on the northern part of the island.   They’ve been absent all winter but we’re seeing more of them on each visit now.   It was cloudy when this image was taken and I didn’t get a lot of light in the eye but I think there’s just enough.      1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 500 I always look forward to the return of the Long-billed Curlews with great anticipation and they started appearing about 10 days ago.  I was happy to get this shot of the male on the right displaying for the female.  Male and female curlews are almost identical but they can be differentiated by their…

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Common Merganser

This winter I had my first good opportunities with the Common Merganser.  A single female in non-breeding plumage spent several weeks at a pond I frequent and even though the lighting was typically marginal while I was there I still got some shots of her that I like.    500mm, 1.4 tc, 1/500, f/7.1, ISO 640 Notice the serrated bill of this fish eating duck – a very effective tool for holding on to their slippery prey.      500mm, 1.4 tc, 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 500 This duck gave me a variety of interesting poses in the several days I photographed her but much of the time she was too far away for a quality shot.  This was one of the exceptions.       500mm, 1.4 tc, 1/400, f/7.1, ISO 640   I had a difficult time getting light in the eye while she was preening.  Here’s one image where I succeeded.      500mm, 1.4 tc, 1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 500 I’m convinced that the reason this merganser hung around the pond for as long as it did is because she was an accomplished thief.  The pond had a resident population of about a dozen Pied-billed Grebes and those grebes are very good fishermen.  I seldom saw the merganser actively fishing but whenever a grebe caught a fish this duck was instantly in pursuit in an effort to steal the fish – which is just what she’s doing in this shot.        500mm, 1.4 tc, 1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 400 I was often amused by the variety of positions the merganser could hold her crest – from slicked back…

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