I’m always fascinated by both the process and the resulting photos of birds ejecting pellets.
1/1000, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in
I photographed this Swainson’s Hawk yesterday morning near Monida, Montana. The bird was at an oblique angle on the side of a hill below me and the light was contrasty so mostly I was just watching the bird through my lens when suddenly and unexpectedly…
1/1250, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in
it began to retch.
This hawk really struggled to get the pellet out. It took so long that I took 79 shots during the retching process in my efforts to avoid missing the falling pellet.
1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in
But when the pellet finally appeared…
1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in
it didn’t take long for it to drop to the ground…
1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in
and the hawk watched it all the way down.
It’s very easy to miss the pellet as it falls. Sometimes I don’t even see the pellet through my lens and don’t know if one was actually ejected or it was a “dry run” until I review my images. By the time this pellet actually came out my buffer was beginning to fill and my burst rate slowed significantly so I was lucky to get as many images of the actual pellet as I did.
Ron
Hopefully the large pellet means a full belly.
Amazing shots Ron!
Charlotte
Thats not a pellet (chanelling Crocodile Dundee again). Thats a chunk. Or a torpedo.
That poor hawk must have felt soooooo much better to have that out of the way. I am not in the slightest bit surprised it took a while.
Poor hawk–I won’t complain about my pet cat’s fur “balls” ( really more long tubes like the hawk’s pellet ) ever again–it’s amazing he didn’t choke to death on it……
to your knowledge, does that ever happen?
“to your knowledge, does that ever happen?”
Not that I’m aware of, Kris. Though I did once photograph a harrier really struggling hard to get one up and in the end it only threw up a thick, viscous fluid. The effort made it act dizzy and it even fell off the perch as a result.
That was a HUGE pellet! Must have been a huge relief to expell it! I used to find these in the woods when I was a kid, but thought they were scat…even with my own birds…because I neverr saw them expell them.
Patty, Since I’ve learned to look for some of the signs that they might expel one (arched neck, for example) I’ve begun to see it happen more often.
Fabulous series! I’m not sure how big the pellets usually are, but this one seems huge and like it would have been difficult to get up.
Thanks Susan. It’s one of the larger pellets I’ve seen from a Swainson’s.