Some Random Recent Images

I have an appointment early this morning so I don’t have time for a detailed, organized post so I thought I’d present a little potpourri from the last few weeks.  Though none of these images are spectacular, there’s something about each one of them that appealed to me in some way.   Common Ravens are a hugely challenging subject for me because of their uncooperative behavior and the difficulty of getting detail in the blacks.   For some reason, these birds really seem to eat a lot of snow, which this one had been doing just before take-off.  I do wish the head were slightly sharper but I like the remnants of the snow-eating behavior and how cleanly the bird is presented against the background which is the Great Salt Lake with the snow-covered shoreline at bottom right.     Finding water that isn’t ice-covered around here isn’t easy, for me or for the critters, but I think that’s the only reason this Muskrat came as close to me as it did.  I found this one at a pond close to my home.     Ok, not a classic wing position for sure but the aerodynamic profile of this fast flying Prairie Falcon still appealed to me.  I also like the eye contact and crisp detail in flight.     Life is tough for Coyotes right now as they live in a stark white world of deep snow which makes survival difficult.  Many of them wear an almost perpetual snow mask from pushing their faces through the snow as they try to follow…

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Birds, Lamentations And Musings From My Recent Trip To Western Montana

Recently Mia and I spent just over a week in western Montana on another camping/photo excursion.  It was a trip packed with wonderful birds, breathtaking scenery, colorful characters and almost too much drama for me.  We spent two days at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, then four days on the western Montana farm near the Canadian border where I grew up and then spent one night at Red Rocks again on the way home.   In this post I’ll include a sampling of photos from the trip in the rough order they were taken.    Canon 7D, 1/1250, f/5.6, ISO 800, EV +1.00, 800 f/4, 1.4 tc This Long-billed Dowitcher photo was taken at a pond on the refuge that often has many birds of good variety but it’s difficult to get good light at this location.     Canon 7D, 1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 800, EV +0.00, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This Least Sandpiper gave me a similar pose as in the previous shot but I liked the head turn and lighting better (even though it made the whites a challenge to expose properly).      Canon 40D @22mm, 1/60, f/14, ISO 500, EV +0.33 Mornings at Red Rocks are often spectacular.  Here the sun is just beginning to rise on a layer of ground fog with another layer of low clouds just above the fog.  Roads similar to and much worse than this one were the source of the drama I referred to earlier.  On this trip we had a total of four flat tires, most…

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