Just A Shot That I Like… #1

Today I’m starting a new feature on FeatheredPhotography.  Typically my posts include multiple images showing a sequence of photos that illustrate bird behaviors, photo techniques, favorite shooting locations and the like.  That will not change.  But now, in addition I will post a single shot that appeals to me for whatever reason and title the post “Just A Shot That I Like…” and these image posts will be numbered.  This is post #1.  The photos I choose may be new or from my archives.  I’ll mention what I like about the photograph and any significant flaws I think it has.  I’ll also include my image techs.   My plan is to make one of these posts at least once per week, in addition to my regular posts.    1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc I found this Song Sparrow early in January 2010 on the coldest day so far that winter.  The entire refuge was covered in thick frost – it looked like a magical frosty fairyland all the way to the horizon.   The sparrow was puffed up to keep warm and eating ice encased seeds it grabbed from its twiggy perch.  I like the frost, the vertical position of the tail, the puffed up squatting pose, the ice crystals falling next to the tail and the whimsical mood of the image.  Ron

Continue reading

Strange Encounter with a Northern Harrier and a Junco

For me, life just doesn’t get much better than when I’m watching interesting or unusual bird behaviors up close.  I was photographing this male Northern Harrier out my pickup window while it was perched on the clump of snow-bent vegetation you see in the image below when I heard a soft scratching sound coming from the front of my truck.  I quickly glanced to my right and noticed that a Dark-eyed Junco had landed square in the middle of the hood of the truck.  I thought that was unusual of course but I was more interested in the harrier so I quickly turned back to watching him through my viewfinder and it immediately became apparent that the harrier was now fixated on that junco.         1/3200, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc  I’ve spent hundreds of hours watching and photographing harriers and it’s virtually unheard of for one to take off in my direction when I’m this close to the bird.  Usually the direction of take off is away from me or if I’m lucky it might be either to my left or right.  But this one had apparently decided that it wanted junco for lunch and when it launched it immediately turned slightly and headed straight toward the junco on my truck hood.     1/3200, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc If you look carefully at the harriers eyes in all four shots you’ll notice that he isn’t really focused on me – instead he’s looking slightly to my right, directly at the junco on the hood of the…

Continue reading

Bald Eagle Nictitating Membrane

The nictitating membrane (nictitan) is a membrane or “third eyelid” found in some vertebrates that can be drawn across the eye for protection and to moisten and lubricate the surface of the eye. It is either translucent or semi-transparent so the animal maintains sight while it covers the eye.    Birds, sharks and some reptiles have a fully functional nictitating membrane while in most mammals there is only a small vestigial remnant in the corner of the eye.  However camels, polar bears, seals, aardvarks, marsupials and monotremes do have fully functional membranes.   1/2000, f/8. ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This nearly adult (head not yet completely white) Bald Eagle is neither tame or captive.  But for several days in 2009, beginning on a bitterly cold Christmas morning, this adult adopted a favorite perch (a relatively short pole) that looked out over a pond with fish in it.  The pole was so close to the road that I sometimes had to take off my teleconverter to get the entire bird in the frame.  It warmed my heart that the eagle was so comfortable with me this close and that was a very good thing because Mia and I almost froze to death over the many hours of photographing this magnificent bird. This is the normal appearance of the Bald Eagle’s eye.  In adult birds, eye color is typically some shade of yellow with a distinctly visible pupil (though juvenile birds have much darker eyes).         1/2000, f/8. ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc But every few seconds the bird swipes the nictitating membrane across the…

Continue reading

Angry Barn Swallow

As I approached the parking lot at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge just before taking the loop road there were myriads of swallows flying around as per usual in spring and early summer.  I noticed this Barn Swallow on a post and decided to take a few shots.  It let me approach very closely and I didn’t know why at first but it soon became very apparent that this bird was in distress.     If you look closely at the image above you’ll notice that there is “something” connecting the tips of a tail feather and one of the primary wing feathers that prevented this bird from flying and as a result it was a very unhappy and frustrated bird!       I photographed this swallow for over 10 minutes as it struggled to solve its incomprehensible problem.      It would alternately attempt to break the connection by raising and extending its wings and…      trying to reach the problem area with its beak, which it just couldn’t quite do.      At times its apparent anger and frustration (anthropomorphic of me, I know) became quite evident as it would momentarily cease struggling and just sit there and call out pitifully.  But eventually the connection between the feathers broke and the bird flew off instantly – so fast that I missed the shot.  I still don’t know for sure what substance caused this problem.  It has been suggested by others that it could have been spider silk.  I’ve also wondered about the possibility of sticky tree…

Continue reading

American Kestrel, Preening and Stretching

This slightly wet and bedraggled (but still handsome) male kestrel was quite wary of me as I approached him on his favorite perch.      1/1250, f/5.6, ISO 500, EV +0.67  American Kestrels are notoriously difficult to get close to and several times he nearly flew off as I slowly worked myself within good shooting distance.  But it had been a cold morning and these birds are more “sticky” in the chill so he allowed me a relatively close approach.       1/1000, f/7.1, ISO 640, EV +0.33   Soon after he became comfortable in my presence the warming sun came out (as you can tell by the difference in background in the first two images) and he began to preen.  I got many interesting images of him working on his tail feathers but this one shows the eye best.  For protection of their eyes they typically close them as they run a feather through their beak.     1/1000, f/8, ISO 640, EV +0.33  And then he began a long, slow stretch – first by fanning his tail…     1/1000, f/8, ISO 640, EV +0.33  and then stretching out his left wing downward.  As you can see, they often stretch all three “limbs” at the same time – tail, wing and leg.      1/1000, f/8, ISO 640, EV +0.33 When it was over he fluffed up his feathers and held this position, with one foot up, for quite a while to enjoy the warmth of the sun.  I have many photos of perched kestrels but I don’t often get…

Continue reading

Burrowing Owls of Antelope Island

 I simply adore watching and photographing Burrowing Owls.  They show more personality and cute little quirks than any other avian species I’ve photographed – especially the juveniles.  There are usually three problems with shooting these birds though – finding them in the first place, getting close enough to them for high quality photographs without disturbing their normal activities or making them nervous and catching them out in the open or on an elevated perch so that the vegetation that usually surrounds their burrows doesn’t obscure the birds.  Two summers ago a family of these owls had their burrow right along the road on the Antelope Island causeway.   They were obviously very accepting of all the traffic so getting close without disturbing them was no problem – I’d just pull up on the road edge close to their burrow and stay in my pickup to photograph them.   I photographed them for almost two weeks and I’ve kept a ridiculous number of those images- just can’t make myself delete many of them.  The family consisted of both parents and four juveniles.  I spent most of my time photographing the juvies – they’re just so vivacious, spunky and full of life that they make wonderful subjects.  The problem at this burrow site was two-fold – lots of obscuring vegetation and then when they did perch up higher it was usually on some unattractive pieces of broken concrete adjacent to the burrow.    1/1250, f/9, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Occasionally one of the juveniles would be perched on this rock when we…

Continue reading