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…

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Swainson’s Hawk Buddies

On the evening of our last full day in Montana we spotted a couple of Swainson’s Hawks engaging in a playful dogfight down the road in front of us. As we got closer they hopscotched from post to post but allowed me to get fairly close for a few minutes.

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Why The Cloning Tool Can Be Such A Temptress

This Red-tailed Hawk image from last week in Montana is an example of what I’m nearly always hoping to get when I’m on a perched raptor while it’s facing away from me and about to take off. 99+% of the time all you’ll get is a butt shot but if you’re extremely (and I do mean extremely) lucky you’ll get a nice look back from the bird as it banks, a widely flared and beautiful tail, good light on the entire dorsal surface, light in the eye and maybe even something interesting in the background other than featureless sky. And this time there was the bonus of a small falling feather below the left foot (something I like but others may find distracting).

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Mountain Bluebirds Attending To Nesting Duties

On my recent Montana camping trip I was pleased to note that the good folks of Big Sky Country care deeply about their bluebirds. Nest boxes of every description and age seem to be abundant on both private and public land and along road corridors. Nesting season was in full swing, as were the traditional spats between Mountain Bluebirds and Tree Swallows for nesting rights to the boxes.

On these trips I can never resist photographing the bluebirds in particular as they perform their domestic duties.

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Chasing The Light For A Swainson’s Hawk

Mia and I often joke with each other that we’d make terrible landscape photographers because we’d be bored by all the waiting around for ideal conditions such as dramatic clouds and perfect light. We much prefer the excitement, unpredictability and the occasional and unexpected delights of bird photography. This Swainson’s Hawk was one of those nice surprises.

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Ferruginous Hawk With Chicks

At the end of one of those very long, rough and dusty drives we came upon this Ferruginous Hawk on a nest. We’d spotted the nest on a previous day but could only see the top of the bird’s head as it hunkered down so at the time we didn’t know what species the occupant was.

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Northern Flicker Surprise

A while later I glanced down at one of the holes again and noticed that it seemed to have disappeared or changed shape and color. Closer inspection revealed the reason for the change – the hole was now filled by a gorgeous Northern Flicker looking back at us with one big eye.

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American Kestrel With Snake Prey

Anyone who follows my blog knows that I observe and photograph kestrels often but I’ve never before seen one with snake prey. In my experience it’s always been voles, mice, small birds or (less often) insects. When we first noticed this bird it already had the snake on this bush perch.

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