Great Horned Owls In A Hay Barn
I’m curious about the right half of the tail feathers of the fledgling. They appear to be much lighter in color than the rest of the tail and I’m wondering if there isn’t some leucism going on.
Category: Birds
Long-billed Curlew And Fledgling
Long-billed Curlews spend most of the late spring and early summer at mid-elevations on Antelope Island while nesting and raising their chicks but by this time of year they begin to bring the youngsters down to the shoreline. That’s where I photographed this lone adult with a single youngster yesterday morning.
From Feathers To Fur, Weasel-style
The vast majority of my posts are about birds as they are the primary goal of my photography. But I also love other wildlife, including mammals, and when I run across something interesting during my bird forays I try to photograph them. Such was the case two days ago.
These weasels are occasional cannibals which I’ve documented in two previous posts: “Long-tailed Weasel – Efficient Hunter and Cannibal” and “A Cannibalistic Long-tailed Weasel”.
The Sage Thrasher And The Wasp
The best fun of the morning was provided by this wasp as it unexpectedly intruded on the personal space of the thrasher. The gaze of the bird locked on to the wasp like radar.
Red-tailed Hawks – Creatures Of Habit
Last summer (these first two photos were taken July 22, 2012) I photographed this mated pair of Red-tailed Hawks in western Montana. On most mornings and some evenings I could almost count on finding them perched in the same old snag and even on the same branch of the dead tree.
Earlier this month on my first Montana camping trip I found the same mated pair on the same perch (male at bottom, female up top).
Chukar Free Fall
No great photography this morning but this Chukar just might bring a smile to your face.
Feathered Photography Glitch
There was a glitch this morning when I published my latest post – “A Black-headed Grosbeak, The Canon 7D and a Rookie Mistake” so those of you who get the email notifications and follow the link from the email will only get an error message. Since the email notifications have already gone out I can’t fix them.
But if you go directly to my blog the post is there.
https://featheredphotography.com/blog/2013/06/26/a-black-headed-grosbeak-the-canon-7d-and-a-rookie-mistake/
I apologize for the inconvenience and the confusion. It shouldn’t happen again…
A Black-headed Grosbeak, The Canon 7D And A Rookie Mistake
I found this male Black-headed Grosbeak foraging in a tree near a Montana mountain lake on my recent camping trip up there. The setting is a little cluttered but to my eye it’s an attractive clutter.
Sage Thrasher On Rabbitbrush
Though there’s a fair number of Sage Thrashers on Antelope Island they’ve been a difficult quarry for me. Originally called the Mountain Mockingbird, this smallest of the thrasher species is known to be particularly elusive, frequently running on the ground rather than taking flight and their wandering habits during migration have caused them to be poorly studied.
How Ravens Collect Chick Feces At The Nest – I Had No Idea!
When this parent flew to the nest I was mostly watching and not clicking the shutter. I had no idea that I was about to see something new to me. Suddenly one of the chicks began backing up to the edge of the nest and I figured it was about to defecate over the side. I was wrong.
Western Wood-Peewee
I often make the observation that one of the reasons I’m a bird photographer rather than a birder is because many of the trappings of traditional birding simply don’t appeal to me – keeping lists, in particular. But I’ll admit that getting a “lifer” rings my bell.
And a lifer I got on this last Montana trip – a Western Wood-Peewee. Several of them, in fact.
Forster’s Tern
Whenever I watch terns in flight I’m struck by their grace, beauty and incredible maneuverability as they cruise over the water surface hunting for small fish.
Swainson’s Hawk In Full Flight
In Montana (and elsewhere I presume) orange paint on fence posts is used to mark private property and prevent trespass and hunting without permission on private lands. Apparently some land owners are color blind and use red paint instead of orange but the universally understood message is still the same – stay out!
Not all of the posts are so-marked (perhaps 10%?) but the birds I photograph sure have a nasty habit of choosing those ugly posts to perch on when I’m trying to photograph them. Such was the case with this Swainson’s Hawk a few days ago in western Montana.
Ferruginous Hawk Chicks – Twelve Days Later
We arrived home from our latest foray into western Montana yesterday afternoon – earlier than planned due to uncooperative weather and (to some extent) birds. Those issues are just part of the game when you’re a bird photographer but I’m sure we’ll try again several more times this summer and early fall. We still had a great time, saw some wonderful new and wild country, reacquainted with an old friend (and met a new one who now lives in Alaska but graduated from the same Salt Lake City High School where I was a teacher for 18 years – small world!) and reveled as we always do in our time spent in Big Sky Country. And I did get a few shots that I like that I’ll be posting soon. This post is for documentary purposes only – no aesthetics involved. In a completely unplanned manner (long story) we ended up spending a few minutes at the Ferruginous Hawk nest that I posted about here from our last Montana trip. I thought some of you might like to see how the chicks are coming along. This is one of the images from that earlier post – taken on June 6, 2013. Here are the same birds 12 days later, June 18, 2003. As you can see, the kids are growing up – and quickly! We had no choice but to be there at mid-day so the birds are side lit by very harsh light but I still think the comparison between the two images gives the viewer a good idea of how much development occurs in…
Dancing Bluebird
From the moment this flashy male Mountain Bluebird landed on a weathered and sun-bleached Montana fencepost he seemed hyped-up and twitchy.
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Long-billed Curlew And Fledgling
Long-billed Curlews spend most of the late spring and early summer at mid-elevations on Antelope Island while nesting and raising their chicks but by this time of year they begin to bring the youngsters down to the shoreline. That’s where I photographed this lone adult with a single youngster yesterday morning.
From Feathers To Fur, Weasel-style
The vast majority of my posts are about birds as they are the primary goal of my photography. But I also love other wildlife, including mammals, and when I run across something interesting during my bird forays I try to photograph them. Such was the case two days ago.
These weasels are occasional cannibals which I’ve documented in two previous posts: “Long-tailed Weasel – Efficient Hunter and Cannibal” and “A Cannibalistic Long-tailed Weasel”.
The Sage Thrasher And The Wasp
The best fun of the morning was provided by this wasp as it unexpectedly intruded on the personal space of the thrasher. The gaze of the bird locked on to the wasp like radar.
Red-tailed Hawks – Creatures Of Habit
Last summer (these first two photos were taken July 22, 2012) I photographed this mated pair of Red-tailed Hawks in western Montana. On most mornings and some evenings I could almost count on finding them perched in the same old snag and even on the same branch of the dead tree.
Earlier this month on my first Montana camping trip I found the same mated pair on the same perch (male at bottom, female up top).
Chukar Free Fall
No great photography this morning but this Chukar just might bring a smile to your face.
Feathered Photography Glitch
There was a glitch this morning when I published my latest post – “A Black-headed Grosbeak, The Canon 7D and a Rookie Mistake” so those of you who get the email notifications and follow the link from the email will only get an error message. Since the email notifications have already gone out I can’t fix them.
But if you go directly to my blog the post is there.
https://featheredphotography.com/blog/2013/06/26/a-black-headed-grosbeak-the-canon-7d-and-a-rookie-mistake/
I apologize for the inconvenience and the confusion. It shouldn’t happen again…
A Black-headed Grosbeak, The Canon 7D And A Rookie Mistake
I found this male Black-headed Grosbeak foraging in a tree near a Montana mountain lake on my recent camping trip up there. The setting is a little cluttered but to my eye it’s an attractive clutter.
Sage Thrasher On Rabbitbrush
Though there’s a fair number of Sage Thrashers on Antelope Island they’ve been a difficult quarry for me. Originally called the Mountain Mockingbird, this smallest of the thrasher species is known to be particularly elusive, frequently running on the ground rather than taking flight and their wandering habits during migration have caused them to be poorly studied.
How Ravens Collect Chick Feces At The Nest – I Had No Idea!
When this parent flew to the nest I was mostly watching and not clicking the shutter. I had no idea that I was about to see something new to me. Suddenly one of the chicks began backing up to the edge of the nest and I figured it was about to defecate over the side. I was wrong.
Western Wood-Peewee
I often make the observation that one of the reasons I’m a bird photographer rather than a birder is because many of the trappings of traditional birding simply don’t appeal to me – keeping lists, in particular. But I’ll admit that getting a “lifer” rings my bell.
And a lifer I got on this last Montana trip – a Western Wood-Peewee. Several of them, in fact.
Forster’s Tern
Whenever I watch terns in flight I’m struck by their grace, beauty and incredible maneuverability as they cruise over the water surface hunting for small fish.
Swainson’s Hawk In Full Flight
In Montana (and elsewhere I presume) orange paint on fence posts is used to mark private property and prevent trespass and hunting without permission on private lands. Apparently some land owners are color blind and use red paint instead of orange but the universally understood message is still the same – stay out!
Not all of the posts are so-marked (perhaps 10%?) but the birds I photograph sure have a nasty habit of choosing those ugly posts to perch on when I’m trying to photograph them. Such was the case with this Swainson’s Hawk a few days ago in western Montana.
Ferruginous Hawk Chicks – Twelve Days Later
We arrived home from our latest foray into western Montana yesterday afternoon – earlier than planned due to uncooperative weather and (to some extent) birds. Those issues are just part of the game when you’re a bird photographer but I’m sure we’ll try again several more times this summer and early fall. We still had a great time, saw some wonderful new and wild country, reacquainted with an old friend (and met a new one who now lives in Alaska but graduated from the same Salt Lake City High School where I was a teacher for 18 years – small world!) and reveled as we always do in our time spent in Big Sky Country. And I did get a few shots that I like that I’ll be posting soon. This post is for documentary purposes only – no aesthetics involved. In a completely unplanned manner (long story) we ended up spending a few minutes at the Ferruginous Hawk nest that I posted about here from our last Montana trip. I thought some of you might like to see how the chicks are coming along. This is one of the images from that earlier post – taken on June 6, 2013. Here are the same birds 12 days later, June 18, 2003. As you can see, the kids are growing up – and quickly! We had no choice but to be there at mid-day so the birds are side lit by very harsh light but I still think the comparison between the two images gives the viewer a good idea of how much development occurs in…
Dancing Bluebird
From the moment this flashy male Mountain Bluebird landed on a weathered and sun-bleached Montana fencepost he seemed hyped-up and twitchy.