Red-tailed Hawks of Utah’s West Desert

Red-tailed Hawks are common and widespread throughout most of North America but I typically find them to be wary and difficult subjects to approach and photograph.  However we did have some pretty good luck with them a couple of mornings this past week in western Utah.   Canon 7D, 1/2000, f/6.3, EV -0.67, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc We found them deep in a canyon of one of the many “island mountain ranges” of Utah’s west desert.   There were at least a half-dozen of them hanging out together, many of them juveniles.  The lighting at the bottom of the canyon in early morning was often filtered and spotty and the perches were usually dead trees with lots of branches going every which way so the backgrounds and settings were typically busy.  This is one of the cleaner shots I got of one on a perch in the canyon bottom.      Canon 7D, 1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 640,EV -1.00, 500 f/4 This one chose a juniper perch which would provide a clean background for a takeoff shot so I tried to leave room in front of the bird just in case.  I was looking slightly down on the hawk when it launched and I liked the good look at the topside of the bird in this shot but do wish it had been looking more my way.  But then I probably wouldn’t have any light on the eye – sometimes you just can’t win…     Canon 7D, 1/1250, f/6.3, ISO 640  EV +0.33, 500 f/4 Shooting these hawks in flight was very frustrating!  Each morning they would pretty much…

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Savannah Sparrows – a Bug’s Worst Enemy

On a recent camping trip to Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge a rustic old fence near where we camped was the staging area for several hunting Savannah Sparrows.   They obviously had nests in the grass nearby and would regularly perch on the fence with prey in their beaks after hunting deep in the grasses.      Canon 7D, 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 640, EV -0.33, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Boy, did they eat a lot of bugs!  Most any kind of Arthropod seemed to be an acceptable part of their diet but this critter was one of their favorites.  I believe it to be a dragonfly larvae.     Canon 7D, 1/800, f/6.3, ISO 640, EV +0.33, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc When they returned to the fence line they would often have multiple prey in their beaks.  I expected them to either immediately consume it or deliver it to the nest but that seldom happened.  Instead they would typically hang around on the fence for extended periods of time with the prey still in their beaks – often for 10 minutes or more before eating it or flying off to their nest with it.  I can’t explain the behavior but I’m certainly not complaining about it because that little behavioral quirk gave me many opportunities to photograph them with their bills full of interesting tidbits.      Canon 7D, 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, EV +0.00, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Their diet wasn’t limited to insects either, as it wasn’t unusual to see them with spiders.      Canon…

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Raptors Mobbing Raptors

Mobbing is an antipredator behavior where animals mob a predator by cooperatively attacking or harassing it.  This behavior is especially common in birds during nesting and rearing of young.  Typically, it will be a flock of  passerines like Red-winged Blackbirds mobbing a raptor or perhaps a magpie or any other bird they consider to be a threat to their nest or young.    In mid-June of this year while Mia and I were on another one of our camping/photo forays to Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge we witnessed a somewhat unusual display of mobbing – raptors mobbing raptors.  We had just returned to our camping trailer when Mia noticed this sub-adult Bald Eagle resting on a muskrat mound almost a quarter-mile away across Lower Red Rock Lake – too far away for quality photos (we had marginal light too) but we simply can’t resist training our lenses on a situation like this just to see if something interesting might happen.  And this time it did.     Canon 7D, 1/800, f/6.3, ISO 500 ev +1.33, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc The eagle seemed to be minding its own business and just hanging out for a while on the mound.      Canon 7D, 1/640, f/6.3, ISO 500 ev +1.33, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc But soon a Short-eared Owl (a male I believe) appeared on the scene and he was not happy with the presence of the eagle.  My presumption is that the owl had a nest in the area and it felt the eagle threatened the nest or young.      Canon 7D, 1/1000, f/6.3, ISO 800 ev +1.00,…

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Avocets and Phalaropes in a Hailstorm

Recently I’ve been tardy in posting on this blog because Mia and I just recently returned from one of our favorite camping/photo destinations – four days at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge.  This trip was a memorable one (as they always are at RRL).      Canon 40D, 1/200, f/16, ISO 500 @35mm, ev 0.0 5:30 pm.  We were photographing American Avocets and Wilson’s Phalaropes on one of the refuge ponds when we looked behind us to the west and saw this impressive storm heading our way.  It was really dumping on the foothills surrounding the valley and we figured things might get interesting so we decided to stay at the pond and see what happened.  Good thing we were shooting from my pickup or we’d have been in trouble…     Canon 40D, 1/250, f/16, ISO 500 @17mm, ev +0.33 5:52 pm.  The slow-moving storm took a while to get to us but when it did it was impressive.  It began to rain very hard.  It was so intense that neither of us could keep water off of our lenses – in spite of the 7″ long hood on the end of my 500mm lens.   I love my new Ford F-150 pickup but the engineers did a poor job on the roof rain channels and water simply poured in off the roof whenever a window was down.  As you can see in my side mirror, Mia (who shoots from the back seat) has taken a temporary respite from the downpour and has her lens pulled in and her window…

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Northern Harrier Male in Flight

Just a single image of a male Northern Harrier in flight but this shot means a lot to me.    Canon 7D, 1/6400, f/5.6, ISO 640, EV – 0.o, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc I have many nice harrier images taken during winter around the marshes of the Great Salt Lake but for me this species has been a nemesis bird during spring and summer.  Most of our harriers migrate north in early spring and those that stick around become very difficult to approach.  For three summers now I’ve been trying mightily to get a decent flight shot of a harrier to no avail.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done some crazy driving (I’m usually shooting from my truck) trying to intersect the flight path of one of these birds only to have it veer off before it got close.  As Mia often says – these birds like to “yank my chains”.   Then, about three weeks ago, this male apparently forgot to “yank” and flew relatively close to me.  I rattled off a burst and got this one image that I like.  My techs for the image weren’t ideal but it still worked out and I’m delighted.  I guess it doesn’t take much to satisfy this  bird photographer sometimes… This post will be a bit of an experiment.  I’ll be out of town for a couple of days so I’m preparing the post now and will test the delayed posting feature of WordPress.  Hope it works. Ron      

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Antelope Island Barn Owl Family

There’ll be just a single image in today’s post – the majority of a large family of Barn Owls that are resident on Antelope Island this summer.    Canon 7D, 1/80, f/7.1, ISO 640, EV -1.00, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc I have a special fondness for this species but like most avian photographers I’ve been frustrated by them because their almost strictly nocturnal habits make them extremely difficult to photograph (unless you use flash or some other form of artificial light, which I won’t do).  Occasionally I’ve been able to find one out and about during daytime in winter but that’s a relatively rare occurrence.  This is four of a family group of five or six that hang out on the north end of the island.  They are such striking and beautiful birds (in my opinion) that I find it a bit incongruous that they insist on roosting in the mornings on this decidedly unattractive perch.  But hey, if they like it – so do I.  Well, sort of… Since this post consists of only one image I decided to make it 1200 pixels wide instead of my usual 900.  Personally I always enjoy larger versions of images for their better detail.    Ron   

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Short-eared Owls Defending Their Nest Against Predators

Recent reports from others indicate that bird activity on Antelope Island is slowing down now and our experience out there recently would agree with that assessment so yesterday when Mia and I were trying to decide where to go shooting birds we were a little hesitant about another trip to the island.  But even with things slowing down we almost never fail to find something interesting to photograph and yesterday was certainly no exception!   Canon 7D, 1/800, f/7.1, ISO 500, EV 0, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Soon after arriving on the island we noticed a pair of Short-eared Owls, obviously mated based on their behavior.     Canon 7D, 1/1000, f/7.1, ISO 500, EV 0, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This owl was carrying a vole and we immediately suspected that the pair had a nest in the vicinity, which turned out to be true.  It was quite a distance from the road and buried in vegetation but we could tell its location by watching this owl deliver food to the nest site – either to the mate or to both the mate and chicks.  We watched and photographed the birds for a while but when things slowed down we went further down the island.     Canon 7D, 1/1600, f/8, ISO 640, EV + .67, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc On our return to the area of the nest we immediately saw a quickly developing drama.  A young coyote had apparently just crossed the road and was approaching the nest area and the owls were in…

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Long-billed Curlews and “Bugs” of Antelope Island

Two days ago we were just about to go home after several photographically unproductive hours on Antelope Island because of a lack of cooperative subjects combined with a “cloud from hell” that hung over the island and ruined our light all morning when I spotted two Long-billed Curlews far below us.   The area was accessible to our vehicle so we decided to investigate.  Both Mia and I are very glad we did!   Canon 7D, 1/3200, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc One of the two birds was this adult, perched attentively on this almost white Tintic Quartzite boulder.   The curlew was very tolerant of us and let us get close and even allowed me to maneuver my pickup for a variety of backgrounds.      Canon 7D, 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This adult was very relaxed in our presence and eventually settled into grooming and preening as it’s doing here.       Canon 7D, 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc It turns out that the second bird I had spotted from up above was this juvenile in the tall grasses and the adult had obviously chosen a relatively high perch in order to keep an eye on the youngster (a behavior we’ve seen multiple times in adults with chicks or young juveniles).        Canon 7D, 1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc We spent quite some time with these two birds – the parent on the boulder and the juvenile foraging in the grasses.  Occasionally the adult would fly off for a few…

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