A Few Recent Birds And My New Pet Peeve

Six birds and an abomination.

Occasionally I like to post a sampling of bird photographs I’ve taken recently that didn’t quite make the grade for a stand-alone post but still have some redeeming qualities. Each of these photos was taken here in northern Utah over the past twelve days.

 

A side lit male American Kestrel warming up in the early morning sun. This was one of those situations where I had difficulty getting sharp focus on the bird, probably because of the temperature disparity between my warm lens and the cold outside air.

 

 

A Black-crowned Night Heron in the process of moving to a new roosting spot. With this wing position most of what we can see of the bird is shades of creamy-white.

 

 

Canada Geese soon after takeoff from a pond. I think this photo could have been pretty neat without the extra wings of the third goose behind the bottom one. I still think it’s interesting in a confusing sort of way because the bottom goose almost looks like it has four wings..

 

 

A Cooper’s Hawk enjoying a snack while perched in my neighbor’s tree across the street. This photo was taken through my dirty bedroom window and it shows.

 

 

A Pied-billed Grebe with a crayfish in its bill. This bird was chugging along at a pretty good clip, apparently in an effort to reach some nearby reeds where it could enjoy its snack without worrying about other grebes or thieving gulls making an attempt to steal the crayfish.

In every shot I have of this grebe it’s holding its tongue vertically in the back of it’s mouth – perhaps in an attempt to protect it from potential damage from the claws of the crayfish.

 

 

Good news about the immature Red-tailed Hawk with the injured left leg I’ve been reporting on in recent weeks. A few days ago Billy Fenimore, director of the Eccles Wildlife Center at Farmington, told me the injured hawk continues to hunt and thrive behind the Wildlife Center.

Almost certainly this is that same bird, photo taken on the same morning I talked to Billy, as the hawk took off from an outhouse stack in the parking lot of the Wildlife Center. Notice that ‘she’ appears to be putting full weight on her injured left leg. When I first started photographing her she couldn’t put any weight on it. Her leg appears to be healing nicely.

 

OK, now for the ‘abomination’.

 

I’ve been visiting three city parks for bird photography for over a decade now and until the last couple of weeks I’ve never seen any of these model power boats on the ponds. But I’ve seen three of these monstrosities on one of the ponds on two different occasions recently.

These screaming contraptions scare the bejesus out of the birds. When one of them hits the water the birds either leave the large pond or cower in the most inaccessible corners of of it they can find. These noisy little terrors on the water reach speeds of over 30 mph and they turn on about half a dime so birds are extremely wary of them. You can completely forget about any normal, natural behavior from birds while one of these boats is anywhere on the pond. I imagine fisherpersons feel the same way about them as the birds and I do.

City parks personnel are nearly always nearby so they have to know about the model boats on the pond but they don’t do anything about them.

As far as I’m concerned model power boats on urban ponds are highly inappropriate – almost in the same category as the drones that I despise.

Ron

 

49 Comments

  1. I’m so happy to hear the red-tailed hawk is continuing to do well. Red-tails are sturdy birds with a strong will to survive and this one is no exception! And I understand your frustration with the RC boats on the ponds. Either people don’t understand the damage they’re doing or they just don’t care. I suspect it’s the latter. I have a pet peeve of my own. I live in an area of horse farms, vineyards, and smaller farms where people keep chickens, ducks, sheep, goats, etc. We have hundreds of miles of narrow, winding dirt roads. Recently people have started riding dirt bikes. Law enforcement chased them off the public roads but they ride on the large black angus farm adjacent to my property – often for many hours from mid-afternoon until dusk – the time when I’m usually trying to do training and enrichment exercises with my education owls. It’s horrible and there doesn’t seem to be anything I can do about it.

  2. Arwen Professional Joy Seeker

    Those Canadian Geese? I can’t believe it! It’s amazing! It’s incredible. OMGosh! That second one is a Dragonfly Canadian Goose!

  3. I would not expect window glass to be optically flat, so it’s surprising to me how good photos that were taken through a window often look, regardless of a little dirt.
    If I had to pick a favorite of these photos it would be the Canada geese, partly because of the “extra” wings.

  4. Harassing of waterfowl on the pond could be construed as a violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Your city park officials may be oblivious, but I’m sure your state wildlife department (Whatever it’s called in UT) would be interested. I have reported drones flying near an eagles nest and another buzzing a Snowy Owl here in Rhode Island. Our DEM takes it very seriously.

    • Gary, so far I haven’t seen any of them deliberately harassing the birds. The boats are just on the same pond as the birds. If that changes I’ll definitely report it. .

  5. Lots of comments today so I’ll just say nice selection and man the torpedoes.

  6. Wonderful birdpourri day, dirty window be damned! 😉 Birds are just so stinkin’ cool! I’m elated that “our” girl is healing so well.

    I hate all those noisy “toys,” especially when they disturb wildlife or habitat (I’m looking at you new Ford Bronco commercials!). A few years ago we were having a low cost vaccine clinic in a park and these idiots kept flying a drone over the table where we were doing the shots and scaring the crap (in some cases literally!) out of the dogs and cats. We asked them several times to move the drone and it wasn’t until we threatened to call the police and our humane officers that they finally moved.

  7. I really like the Canada Geese, the light and composition are excellent. It is very Escher-ish, my eye keeps following the lines, my brain making sense of the extra set of wings.

    I won’t go on a tangent of offending big boy toys!

  8. So many things to say here … but most of it’s already been said (your bird images are great, those boats are truly sucky), so I will focus on this: Is there a Poo-Poo screen over that outhouse vent our beautiful, self-repairing Red-tail is perched on? Not that I’m worried about her getting trapped, but an owl, a kestrel? I’m sure Teton Raptor Center would be happy to provide one! (<$45 a small price to pay for raptor health & safety!) 😬

  9. I was very happy to read your update on the injured juvenile red tail hawk. Let’s hope s/he continues to improve. On the topic of the powered model jet boat, around here we call them “lake lice” for good reason! Sybby

  10. Great post Ron. I enjoy the variety you share with us. Sometimes a single stunning shot, sometimes a series of photos to help illustrate a story, and sometimes a mix of birds doing their bird-things.

    The 2-geese, 6-wings photos made me laugh. What timing. The red-tailed hawk photo and health update are music to my eyes and ears.

    Now, as for those miniature, menacing marine models. . . How about a remote control submarine to torpedo them?

    • Mark, I thought you’d enjoy this comment made on this post by a Facebook friend: “A friend of mine once hijacked one of those little boats with a radio controller more powerful than the operator’s and ran it straight into a concrete wall.”

  11. Linda Munson Covey

    Hi Ron, I’m having a heck of a time attempting to update my email address. We moved from AZ to St. George in November of 2020 and I changed my address. Ive gone to world press but unable to make that change.

  12. Linda Munson Covey

    I’m sure the “boaters” dont even consider the wildlife. In AZ along the SALT RIVER where the mustangs hang out experience tubers, dogs, loud ppl, you name it! Now, your pics are always so cool and I enjoy them, especially when you toss a lot of different ones up. The geese was a fave! Lots to look at!. Kestrels alway a cute little guy with those ginormous eyes. Black-crowned night herons have huge wings compared to them sitting around looking small. As for the cooper hawk, I’ve taken 1000’s of shots out my windows in AZ. Thanks for all of them.

  13. Your peeve would make my grumpy self close to ballistic with rage.
    I love each and ever one of the other treats you offered us today though. Wonderful, wonderful news about the red tail.
    I am particularly taken with the four winged goose – greedy sod. Some of us (me) would be very happy to have a single pair.

  14. Love all the photos today Ron – especially the geese. We have hundreds of Canadian geese in Arizona this time of year. Flocks of them fly over our house every morning at 7 to Indian Reservation land and fly back to a nearby golf course lake every evening at 6. We call them “the commuter train.” Absolutely love their honking!

    As to your new pet peeve – everyone who follows you will agree! Some of our smaller cities in AZ have noise ordinances to limit the motorcyclists from revving their engines. A noise ordinance at a public lake seems like a great idea!

  15. I always love potpourri days! Oddly, I was going to ask you if you’d seen that redtail recently! Great minds and all! LOL! Can you see the smile that exceeds the width of my face that she’s surviving? I’m so thankful for an overabundance of voles who are making her survival possible. And it’s ALWAYS good to see raptors, especially those with a fist full of fresh, bloody critter!
    My first reaction to reading your headline was Oh NO! Not another pet peeve! Sadly, I can’t argue with you on this one! However, it really falls under the primary and huge umbrella of Stupid Humans Who Don’t Give a Flying F*** About Wildlife (or anybody else for that matter!)! We just need to add another onto the seemingly endless list of subcategories. But you’re right, It’s right up there with drones! The ONLY saving grace (for lack of a better term) is that they can only threaten critters on the water unlike drones that can threaten every creature on the face of the planet! Humans really need to go!
    Oh and now I know beyond all doubt that you aren’t from anywhere near Louisiana! Otherwise, you’d know that it’s CRAWfish as in etoufe or boiled up in Zatarain’s along with new red potatoes and corn on the cob and served on a bed of newspaper on a picnic table–YUMMY! 😉

    • “I know beyond all doubt that you aren’t from anywhere near Louisiana”

      Boy that’s for sure, Laura. As a biologist they’ve always been crayfish to me.

      I don’t call them crawdads, mudbugs or yabbies either.

    • Arwen Professional Joy Seeker

      Grin, as I grew up in Ouachita parish, I agree! Crawfish you eat. Crawdads are bait. Crayfish are something I’ve heard about in the North. LOLOLOL

  16. Kathleen M Finnerty

    Love the four winged goose. I totally get the frustration over the ‘toys’ on the water. Here, we just put up with assholes that have loose dogs running from one end of the beach to the other. After all, if you’re a worthless rethuglican jerk, the rules don’t apply to ‘your dog must be on a leash’. My last point – wash your damn windows!!! ; )

  17. Fun! All photos capture the behavior of the various birds – entertain as well as educate as usual! 😍 Glad the hawk is hanging in there and healing….

    The remote boats are the usual I/Me/Mine and “so what” on the wildlife – probably gives them a laugh to watch them scatter….😖 Hope officials are receptive tho, like you, probably not unless there is a specific rule against their use…..😞

    • “probably gives them a laugh to watch them scatter”

      No question Judy, in at least some cases it does. Thankfully I haven’t seen any of that deliberate behavior from them. Yet…

  18. A nice post this morning, Ron. The photograph of the American Kestrel is the one I prefer, followed by the one of the Pied-billed Grebe. I begin my day in visiting your blog and every post is so interesting. Thank you so much.

  19. Wonderful photos, Ron. I would not have guessed the Cooper’s Hawk photograph was taken through a window. I like the “atmospheric effect” of it.

    I am happy the Red-tailed hawk is healing well. Watching wildlife have to hunt when they are injured is sad. Nobody brings them food while they recover in bed…

    Argh on the motorized remote control boat. My first thought is “selfish”. The pleasure of one attention seeker with his new toy taking precedence over the pleasure of many others watching wildlife, and of course the survival of the wildlife. My hope is that the officials find a pond far from wildlife where these obnoxious things can be used and the attention seekers can show off between themselves. Otherwise, more will probably arrive.

    • “Otherwise, more will probably arrive”

      That’s exactly what I’m afraid of, Ed. Going 13 years without seeing one of these boats there and then seeing three of them in the same week suggests a very unfortunate trend.

  20. Ron, I loved your post today & absolutely understand your hatred of those model power boats!! It would make my blood boil too!! Just more of “I’m doing what I want & the hell with the rest of you!” I also have to say that after reading your comments on the Canada Geese, I took a better look at your photo & I not only saw the wing you were talking about but also saw part of the 3rd goose’s head – just below the front goose! Just shows how your comments make me look more closely at your photos!!

  21. Everett F Sanborn

    Excellent post. Really like all the photos. My Kestrel friend looks a little chilly waiting for the sun to warm him up. Love the Night Heron appearing to burst from the shadows into the light. That is a beauty. Interesting about the Grebe. Maybe holding the tongue back is an inherited trait, or possibly one learned the hard way. Yes, get those windows cleaned so you can get clear shots of your visitors. And for sure those things are a pet peeve of mine along with flying drones over the lakes and scaring the hell out of the ducks and other birds. And finally really like the flying geese. I have recently taken a few of those myself after mostly ignoring them because they are so common.

    • Everett, it’s my intention to talk to park personnel about those boats and put a little pressure on. It probably won’t do any good but maybe it’ll make me feel a little better…

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