A Mated Pair Of Red-tailed Hawks

Our recent trip to the Centennial Valley of sw Montana lasted 6 days.  On the last morning, only an hour or so before we had to leave, we found these cooperative adult Red-tailed Hawks.  I couldn’t believe our luck – warm, early morning light coming from the right direction, a clean natural perch, an interesting and varying background with clouds and blue sky, they allowed us close to them for over 20 minutes and there were two of them!   1/800, f/9, ISO 500, 500 f/4. 1.4 tc  When we first found them they were perched together.  I strongly suspect they’re a mated pair (though I don’t know that unequivocally) since they’re adults and many Red-tails stay paired year-round.     1/1250, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4. 1.4 tc  The two birds stayed together on the perch for almost 10 minutes as we photographed them and then one of them flew off.     1/1250, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4. 1.4 tc The hawk left behind immediately decided to occupy the vacated perch…      1/1250, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4. 1.4 tc and did so for some time.      1/500, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4. 1.4 tc   But the bird that flew off landed in a nearby conifer and immediately had to contend with a pair of very aggressive and persistent American Kestrels.      1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4. 1.4 tc   Soon the kestral-harrassed hawk returned, only to find its preferred perch already occupied.      1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4. 1.4 tc  There was some…

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Great Salt Lake Chukar

I often enjoy elements of incongruity in my images, particularly birds in unexpected settings.  Chukars prefer steep, rocky, mountainous and dry terrain so in my experience with them it is atypical to catch them in a photograph with a body of water in the background.  When it’s hot, as it is now, these birds drink large amounts of water but of course the Great Salt Lake is much too saline for them to drink from.  So they spend nearly all their time higher up on the rocky slopes and drink from the fresh water springs in the area. 1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc However, there is one thing that draws them to the shore of the lake this time of year – brine flies.  Chukars are almost exclusively vegetarians and eat mostly leaves and seeds although they’ll consume insects “occasionally”.  But apparently they can’t resist the bounty of hordes of brine flies found along the shore of the lake during July and August (I’ve posted a shot here of a Chukar gorging on these flies) . I found this bird and several others along the shoreline yesterday.  While I didn’t actually observe them consuming flies this time I’m confident that it was the flies that attracted them to the shore. Ron

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Savannah Sparrow Parasitized By Cowbirds

Brown-headed Cowbirds are well-known for laying their eggs in the nests of other species – brood parasitism.  A single cowbird female may lay up to 40 eggs in the nests of other species per season.  More than 220 host species have been identified and at least 144 of those species have successfully raised the parasitic cowbird offspring.  The physical size of the host species ranges from tiny 10 gram creepers to 150 gram meadowlarks. For a variety of reasons, the young of the parasitic cowbirds are more likely to survive than are those of the host species.  The breeding success of the rare Kirtland’s Warbler has been severely reduced by cowbird brood parasitism.   1/1600 f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4   On our recent trip to sw Montana we found this Savannah Sparrow bringing food (insects, mostly young grasshoppers) to one of its fledglings on a fence near our campground.      1/1600 f/6.3, ISO 400, 500 f/4  But the fledgling was a cowbird and not a Savannah Sparrow.  Cowbirds are more than twice the size of Savannah Sparrows by weight and that difference is obvious here.      1/1600 f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4 The cowbird youngster was boisterous and rambunctious when food was brought in.  I actually had the impression that the adult sparrow was a little intimidated by the size and hyperactivity of the cowbird chick and the “parent” bird didn’t stick around for long when food was delivered.     1/1600 f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4  After the chick swallowed this grasshopper the sparrow gave it another…

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Juvenile Burrowing Owl In Flight

This morning was the first time we’ve been out photographing since our Montana trip.  I’ll post more images from Big Sky Country soon but I thought I’d break it up a bit with a couple of photos from this morning.     1/2500, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc The juvenile Burrowing Owls were quite active at just the right time – when the sun was still low but high enough to give me enough light and shutter speed that I didn’t have to crank up my ISO too far.  I haven’t had a lot of luck with Burrowing Owls in full flight so I was quite pleased with this shot even though I had to add a bit of canvas to the image for composition.      1/2500, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc These youngsters are beginning to show some signs of maturing by the development of more color on the breast.  As you can see, this is one of the young birds that has been banded.It’s very entertaining to watch these juveniles. In the morning before it gets too hot they often fly from perch to nearby perch and when they’re on the ground they seem to enjoy manipulating objects like twigs and leaves and nibbling on flowers.  They interact with each other with the enthusiasm of youth.  The problem for the photographer is that when they’re on the ground it’s virtually impossible to get a clear shot of them through all the vegetation. I really enjoy these little guys. Ron

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Finally – A Cooperative Ferruginous Hawk

We had to go all the way to Montana to find a cooperative Ferruginous Hawk but three days ago we found one in Beaverhead County.  My files on this species are woefully lacking and it’s not because I haven’t worked hard at getting acceptable images of them.  I’ve made many trips to the island mountain ranges of western Utah specifically to photograph this handsome raptor but until this last week I could count the number of nice images I had of them on one hand.  They just won’t let me approach them. This single bird made the enitre trip well worth it.  The Ferruginous Hawk has been described as “the largest, most powerful and grandest of our buteos – a truly regal bird”.  In fact the scientific name for the species is Buteo regalis – a fitting descriptor of this hawk.    1/4000, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc We found this bird on our way home, beside a long and isolated dirt road and I was even pulling my camping trailer which didn’t spook it.  This first shot was taken from some distance because I assumed it would fly off when we got closer.  It didn’t.  Here it looks like the bird is upset with us for coming along but I think it was reacting to another Ferruginous Hawk that was in the vicinity (though we didn’t yet know it was there).  This road has quite a bit of traffic (horse trailers, logging trucks etc) considering how isolated it is and since these birds are “sit and wait hunters” I believe this…

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Red-tailed Hawk Take-off

We just returned last night from a 5 1/2 day camping/photo trip to sw Montana.  It was simply an awesome journey with mostly great weather and light, lots of wildlife and birds (especially raptors), spectacular scenery, interesting characters and no significant mishaps but now the piper must be paid.  I have an endless list of chores to catch up on which includes unpacking, washing gobs of dried mud and cow poop off of my pickup and camping trailer and then culling thousands of new images and processing the keepers. So, for obvious reasons this will be a short post.   1/2000. f/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc  This image was taken last Thursday morning in Beaverhead County, Montana.  Lots  of factors have to play out to get a nice image of a bird taking off and for this shot I was able to get many of them right but I was missing an attractive, natural perch.  In this case it was an ugly power pole insulator and wire so I decided to clone them out.  I’m a very reluctant cloner but when I just can’t resist the temptation I always disclose. Because of the trip I’ve been slow in posting and commenting on other blogs.  I’ll remedy both shortcomings in the near future. Ron

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Juvenile Burrowing Owl – Wing Exercises

I simply can’t resist posting a couple of more images of  juvenile Burrowing Owls that were taken last week.   1/1600, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc It may look like this bird has lost its balance on the sage and is trying to regain it but I believe it was simply exercising its wings.  It flapped and fluttered for quite a while – long enough for me to get several dozen images of the action (I saved 18 of them).     1/2000, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc I do wish there’d been a bit more light though.  The sun ducked behind a cloud just as just as this youngster started flapping.  Should’a heard Mia cussing that cloud!  As per usual, I kept my cool and just went with the flow.  🙂 Actually, we’ve both been known to cuss clouds on occasion but I’m much better at it than she is.  She just doesn’t have my enthusiasm.  Or originality… Ron  

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Rough-legged Hawk Hunting Voles

Out of pure habit I still look for Rough-legged Hawks whenever I pass one of their favorite perches, despite the fact that they’re now on their arctic and subarctic breeding grounds in northern Alaska and Canada.  Last winter it seemed that these hawks were everywhere in northern Utah and it wasn’t unusual for me to see a dozen or more different birds in a morning of shooting.  They’re a particularly handsome raptor and I love photographing them.    1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc  I found this one hunting voles along the Antelope Island causeway this past December.  A moderate headwind slowed the bird down and made getting flight shots a little easier.      1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc When hunting they’re usually looking down which makes it difficult to get eye contact but occasionally you can catch them looking at you if you’re quick on the trigger.  Here the wings are mostly horizontal but for me the tilt of the tail helps to compensate for that.      1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This eye/head angle is more typical of a hunting bird.  The position of the left wing probably won’t appeal to many but there’s something about the curves of both wings that I liked.  The sky color may seem a little funky but that’s the color it really was so I didn’t play with it.      1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Here the hawk has captured a baby vole.  This surprised me a little…

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Storm Clouds Over Antelope Island

Last Wednesday, June 11, was an interesting day to be on Antelope Island.  We need good light for bird photography and clouds usually don’t cut it for us (much different from landscape photography, I know) so we’re seldom out there when it’s overcast.  But the forecast called for clearing so we took a chance and left home right after 5:30 so we could be there at sunrise. It turned out to be mostly cloudy all morning so we didn’t have much luck with birds but the clouds and light gave us some dramatic vistas that I couldn’t help but photograph.   1/200, f/9, ISO 400, 17-85mm @17mm, hand-held   Just after sunrise we had this view of the island from the causeway.  I liked the unusual combination of fearfully dark clouds with no wind which made the water almost as smooth as glass for some interesting reflections.  The cluster of American Avocets on the right added to the natural scene for me.      1/640, f/9, ISO 400, 17-85mm @17mm, hand-held Traveling south on the island I liked the play of light on the clouds, prairie grasses and sagebrush to go along with the curved horizon line. I’m certainly no landscape photographer and have no plans to give up my “day job” photographing birds but I couldn’t resist sharing a couple of images from that wonderful morning. Ron

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Antelope Island – A Smorgasbord For Coyotes

A lot of folks don’t like coyotes but I’m in a different camp.  I have great admiration for their adaptability, hunting skills, intelligence and communication abilities.  Over the past few years I’ve had many opportunities to observe their behaviors on Antelope Island which has made me an even bigger fan of this amazing canid.  To watch a coyote hunt is a fascinating experience. This post is meant as a documentation of the opportunistic feeding tendencies of the species rather than as a showcase for technically perfect photos.   Getting clear shots of any mammal on the ground (as opposed to perched or flying birds) is a rarity because of all of the grasses, sunflowers, sagebrush, rabbitbrush and moth mullein the photographer has to shoot through on the island.   So there’s lots of “stuff” in front of the coyote in some of these shots and a couple of them are sizeable crops but I think their prey tendencies are documented reasonably well by the images.    1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc  Coyotes eat a lot of voles – prodigious numbers of them in fact.  I’ve seen a single animal catch and consume 4-5 voles in the same area within just a few minutes and I’ve seen it several times.      1/1000, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc But they’ll also take birds when they can catch them.  This coyote was returning from the lake shoreline with an unusual prize – some kind of waterfowl.  From the position of the leg attachment at the back of the body I’d guess…

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Landing Juvenile Burrowing Owl

We had some more fun with the family of Burrowing Owls this morning.  There are two adults and at least seven chicks.  Some of the youngsters have been banded, which may be good for the owls but it isn’t particularly good for photography so I was happy to see that this one wasn’t wearing any jewelry.    1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4 One of the adult birds spent much of the morning perched on sagebrush to the left of this one and occasionally one of the youngsters would come in and land close by.  I was pleasantly surprised by the eye contact in this image.  Usually they’re looking down at this point in the landing process but I think a slight headwind gave this bird time enough to glance up at my pickup just to make sure we continued to be no threat.  In the very next frame the owl was beginning to look down at its landing spot on the sage. I love the very early morning light on these owls but especially on the juveniles.  The tradeoff is that ISO 640 is pushing it for my Canon 7D but I always like to have good shutter speed when an opportunity like this suddenly appears.  I had taken off my tc but still barely fit the owl in the frame.  The upper background is a distant sandbar and sloping shoreline of the Great Salt Lake.      1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4 I was able to get five sharp shots as this owl was coming in.  My favorite of the sequence is the first image…

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Juvenile Marsh Wren

I normally have difficulty getting close enough to Marsh Wrens for them to be large enough in the frame to show good detail.  They’re very small, incredibly flitty and they inhabit busy backgrounds – all challenges for the photographer.  Last year I had some success with adults but juveniles have always eluded me.   1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc But yesterday at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge I found this cooperative juvenile in good light and the background reeds were far enough away from the bird to soften nicely.  And I didn’t even get shadows from the reeds falling on the bird which is unusual for me. I love these feisty, raucous little birds and they have unbelievable energy.  They scurry from perch to perch and sing almost continually, day and night during breeding season, in their bid for reproductive success. It makes me tired just to contemplate such a frenzied existence.  Think I’ll take a nap… Ron

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At Long Last – The Red Crown Patch Of The Western Kingbird

Occasionally, even a mediocre shot can make my day. I’ve known about the red/orange crown patch of the Western Kingbird for some time now but until yesterday had never seen or photographed it.    1/1600, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc It normally lies concealed under the gray feathers on the top of the head and is rarely seen or photographed.  Normally the crown patch is only revealed before or during an attack on another kingbird or a potential predator threatening its nest.      1/2500, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4 The most common aggressive pose toward other kingbirds  is called the wing flutter, where the wings are extended and rapidly fluttered in small arcs.  But typically the crown patch is not exposed during a wing flutter unless an actual attack on the other kingbird is imminent.      1/2500, f/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f/4 I’ve included this image and the next one to show how well the crown patch is concealed.  Here, as this kingbird ejects and throws off a pellet, you have a good look at the top of the head with no suggestion of a red crown patch beneath the overlying crown plumage.      1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc  And another kingbird, banking at takeoff, gives us a pretty good look at the top of the head with no hint of the patch.      1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc But yesterday a gull made the mistake of landing on a perch very close to this kingbirds nest and it’s…

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A Plea For Respect For The Burrowing Owl

If there’s a group of birds on the face of the earth that is almost universally loved it seems to me that it would have to be owls. Many folks are captivated by them for their large forward-facing eyes, quizzical expressions, eerie vocalizations and the sense of mystery provided by their generally nocturnal habits.  Others appreciate their many unique adaptations, such as silent flight and their ability to turn their heads 270 degrees.  There’s just something about owls…   1/640, f/9, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc  And for many of us Burrowing Owls are at the pinnacle of that adoration.  Their comical antics, especially those of the juveniles, tug at our heartstrings and make us smile.  And they’re more accessible to viewing than are most owls because they’re active during daylight and spend much of their time on the ground close to their burrows instead of being hidden high up in trees.  The flip-side to all this is that Burrowing Owls are extremely vulnerable to unthinking human intrusion – especially while they’re nesting and caring for chicks or juveniles.     1/4000, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc In Utah the burrows of these owls are typically found among sagebrush, which they often use as perches during early morning.  This allows the patient and ethical birder or photographer a good look at the birds without having to get too close in order to see through the vegetation usually found in the burrow area. It’s not unusual for Burrowing Owls to nest close to roads and when they do…

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Western Kingbird Wing Flutter

This morning we decided to get out of our rut a little bit (actually, I tend to like ruts) and look for birds somewhere new so we headed to the high country of Morgan County.  We figured it would be a nice respite from the heat, and it was.  We saw some beautiful country and quite a few birds, though most of them were a challenge to get close to. One thing really surprised me.  I don’t believe I’ve ever seen such high concentrations of Black-headed Grosbeaks and Western Kingbirds anywhere.  Both species were picking off bugs along the road and it was a delight to see so many of them.    1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This Western Kingbird was performing the “wing flutter” that kingbirds are so well-known for.  It’s an aggressive behavior that is usually directed at other kingbirds, as was the case here.  I liked the pose and the way the Scrub Oak framed the bird and helped to break up the blue sky background. Ron

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