Month: November 2012

The Return Of The Rough-legged Hawks

One of the most pleasant harbingers of winter for me is always the return of the Rough-legged Hawks.  This species breeds in high subarctic and arctic regions so we don’t see them from about March through October but they usually winter around here in good numbers and I love to photograph this handsome buteo. There’s been a few “roughies” on Antelope Island for a couple of weeks now but this morning was the first time this year I’ve been able to get close enough for good photos.  This bird chose to perch on the same dark rocks that I’ve been photographing Red-tailed Hawks on.    1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in (same techs for all the images in this post) I wasn’t quite as close as I’d have liked to have been for perched shots so I waited for take-off.  And waited.  And waited.  Almost went to sleep…     Finally, a couple of men on horseback were riding the trail behind the rock in the background and I figured they’d spook the bird.  They did.     At least I didn’t miss the moment of take-off, which is so easy to do when you have to wait for it for so long.     I got five sharp shots after take-off and something unusual happened with each of them.  Normally, you’re lucky to get one image with the bird looking directly at you.  Usually, they’re looking in the direction of flight but for some…

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Western Grebe Chick Reacts To Food

I’ve always enjoyed spending time with Western Grebes but until this past summer I’ve had very little success in photographing parents back-brooding their chicks.  In June at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge my luck with this behavior changed and I was able to get quite a few nice images of the chicks on the backs of the parents over many days.   Here, two chicks wait patiently on the back of one of the parents while the other one attempts to catch fish for breakfast.  The fishing parent would feed small fish to both chicks and to the brooding parent.  The chicks watch attentively for the adult to emerge from the nearby water with something to eat.     I was always torn about what to photograph – the parent with the fish or the reactions of the chicks to approaching food.  In this case I chose the latter.  Here, the chick on the right has just spotted its parent come up out of the water from behind with a small fish and is beginning to react.     Usually, both chicks were hungry and competed for the food but this time the youngster on the left was full and not interested in anything to eat.  But the chick on the right didn’t know that and went into full competetive begging mode. I always enjoyed watching these reactions to food. Ron  

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American Kestrel Eating “Grit”

I don’t have any beautiful photos today but I do have some interesting behavior. Yesterday morning, I came across this female American Kestrel sitting in the middle of a large, isolated, gravel parking lot/camping area on Antelope Island.  I thought it was an unusual resting place for a kestrel and as I approached her in my pickup I was even more intrigued when she didn’t immediately fly off, as this species typically does.   She repeatedly took a couple of wingbeats and flew a few feet, but never far.  She was, for some reason, reluctant to leave and at first I couldn’t figure out why.     I was eventually able to work my way close enough to her to see that she was swallowing small stones from the gravel parking lot.     This was a behavior that I’d never seen before in a raptor, though I’ve often seen it in other birds.  As a biologist, I’m aware of the general function of the gizzard in birds – that seed eating birds swallow “grit” to act as teeth (birds have no true teeth, presumably a weight saving adaptation for flight) within the grinding gizzard so they can physically break down their hard food and prepare it for chemical digestion.  And it had been my understanding that raptors don’t consume grit because they don’t eat seeds.  The flesh they consume is easily digested and doesn’t need to be physically broken down first. So why is this little falcon swallowing small stones?  I decided to ask Mark Runnels, an extremely knowledgeable master falconer from Oklahoma and…

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Delivering Food For A Family Of Short-eared Owls

I try  not to play favorites when it comes to bird subjects for my photography but Short-eared Owls would have to be near the top of any such list I might make.  I’ve had some luck with them here in Utah but my favorite area to photograph them is in southwest Montana.  This series is from the summer of 2010 in Beaverhead County. I spent several days watching and photographing a male owl hunt voles and then bring them in for his family (female and two chicks) at the nest at the base of a sagebrush.  I thought it might be interesting for some to see a full series of shots (of those I kept) as the male approached the nest with a vole.     1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 800, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, shot from pickup window, natural light Like me, this male was a creature of habit.  I would watch him hunting far off in the distance and when he was successful he would always  repeat the same pattern.  He would bring the vole in to the vicinity of the nest and then land on one of two favorite perches for a short time before delivering the vole to his family.  This small sagebrush was one of those favorite perches – the other was a metal post.  Here, he is in the process of landing and you can see the dark vole in his left foot. He always carried the vole to the perch in his left foot (as I’ve documented here) and always transferred…

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Swainson’s Hawks In Different Types Of Light

It goes without saying that light angle, intensity and warmth can have huge effects on an image, both positive and negative.  I thought it might be interesting to see the effects of different types of light on the same species – in this case, Swainson’s Hawks.    1/160,  f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in Here, the sun was low and the light warm.  The light was directional (side lighting the bird) but it worked pretty well because the darker parts of the bird are in the direct light.  The head angle is just right for this pose – if the head were angled any more toward me I’d have lost the catch light and light on the face.  If it were turned any more away from me I’d have lost good eye contact.     1/1250,  f/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in Like in the previous image, this hawk is side lit.  The difference is that the bird has its light, creamy colored belly facing the sun so the whites, though they’re not blown out, are a tad too bright and lacking detail.     1/2000,  f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, natural light, not baited, set up or called in I took this image a little later in the morning, so the light wasn’t so warm and at that angle enough of it is reflecting up from the ground to give me sufficient detail in the shaded, dark  brown plumage…

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A Good Look At The Feather Patterns Of A Prairie Falcon

Last month, this Prairie Falcon let me get very close to it on the causeway to Antelope Island.  It was in early morning and the bird was in deep shade.  It’s my impression that they feel less threatened in that kind of light and though it makes for very difficult photography, I’ll take the bird close in poor light, instead of a mile away in gorgeous light – any ol’ day of the week.    1/640, f/4.5, ISO 640, 500 f/4, natural light, not baited, set up or called in  Previously, I’ve posted a different image of this bird but that one didn’t have the textures provided by the raised feathers that we see here.      1/800, f/4.5, ISO 640, 500 f/4, natural light, not baited, set up or called in When this bird decided it was time to leave it had a bit of a pleasant surprise for me.  In this light and with this slow shutter speed I could never get the bird sharp as it took off but just before it launched, it spread its wings and held them there for a few seconds and it even glanced back enough for me to get some light in the eye. But what I like most about this image is the great look at the feather patterns on the left wing and back.  Because of the spread wing and the lightly colored margins on each feather, those patterns are very clear and it is easy to delineate each plumage “group” – primaries, secondaries, primary coverts, greater coverts, median coverts, lesser coverts, alula, scapulars,…

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