Category: Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge

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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Savannah Sparrows – a Bug’s Worst Enemy

On a recent camping trip to Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge a rustic old fence near where we camped was the staging area for several hunting Savannah Sparrows.   They obviously had nests in the grass nearby and would regularly perch on the fence with prey in their beaks after hunting deep in the grasses.      Canon 7D, 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 640, EV -0.33, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Boy, did they eat a lot of bugs!  Most any kind of Arthropod seemed to be an acceptable part of their diet but this critter was one of their favorites.  I believe it to be a dragonfly larvae.     Canon 7D, 1/800, f/6.3, ISO 640, EV +0.33, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc When they returned to the fence line they would often have multiple prey in their beaks.  I expected them to either immediately consume it or deliver it to the nest but that seldom happened.  Instead they would typically hang around on the fence for extended periods of time with the prey still in their beaks – often for 10 minutes or more before eating it or flying off to their nest with it.  I can’t explain the behavior but I’m certainly not complaining about it because that little behavioral quirk gave me many opportunities to photograph them with their bills full of interesting tidbits.      Canon 7D, 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, EV +0.00, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Their diet wasn’t limited to insects either, as it wasn’t unusual to see them with spiders.      Canon…

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Raptors Mobbing Raptors

Mobbing is an antipredator behavior where animals mob a predator by cooperatively attacking or harassing it.  This behavior is especially common in birds during nesting and rearing of young.  Typically, it will be a flock of  passerines like Red-winged Blackbirds mobbing a raptor or perhaps a magpie or any other bird they consider to be a threat to their nest or young.    In mid-June of this year while Mia and I were on another one of our camping/photo forays to Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge we witnessed a somewhat unusual display of mobbing – raptors mobbing raptors.  We had just returned to our camping trailer when Mia noticed this sub-adult Bald Eagle resting on a muskrat mound almost a quarter-mile away across Lower Red Rock Lake – too far away for quality photos (we had marginal light too) but we simply can’t resist training our lenses on a situation like this just to see if something interesting might happen.  And this time it did.     Canon 7D, 1/800, f/6.3, ISO 500 ev +1.33, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc The eagle seemed to be minding its own business and just hanging out for a while on the mound.      Canon 7D, 1/640, f/6.3, ISO 500 ev +1.33, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc But soon a Short-eared Owl (a male I believe) appeared on the scene and he was not happy with the presence of the eagle.  My presumption is that the owl had a nest in the area and it felt the eagle threatened the nest or young.      Canon 7D, 1/1000, f/6.3, ISO 800 ev +1.00,…

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Avocets and Phalaropes in a Hailstorm

Recently I’ve been tardy in posting on this blog because Mia and I just recently returned from one of our favorite camping/photo destinations – four days at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge.  This trip was a memorable one (as they always are at RRL).      Canon 40D, 1/200, f/16, ISO 500 @35mm, ev 0.0 5:30 pm.  We were photographing American Avocets and Wilson’s Phalaropes on one of the refuge ponds when we looked behind us to the west and saw this impressive storm heading our way.  It was really dumping on the foothills surrounding the valley and we figured things might get interesting so we decided to stay at the pond and see what happened.  Good thing we were shooting from my pickup or we’d have been in trouble…     Canon 40D, 1/250, f/16, ISO 500 @17mm, ev +0.33 5:52 pm.  The slow-moving storm took a while to get to us but when it did it was impressive.  It began to rain very hard.  It was so intense that neither of us could keep water off of our lenses – in spite of the 7″ long hood on the end of my 500mm lens.   I love my new Ford F-150 pickup but the engineers did a poor job on the roof rain channels and water simply poured in off the roof whenever a window was down.  As you can see in my side mirror, Mia (who shoots from the back seat) has taken a temporary respite from the downpour and has her lens pulled in and her window…

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Agonistic (fighting) Behavior in Male Short-eared Owls

I recently returned from one of my favorite places in the world – Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge.  Last year I was able to photograph nesting Short-eared Owls carrying voles to their young but this year, because of the very cold spring, nesting hadn’t even begun.  Instead the owls were competing for territory and mates and pairing up.   On one morning I was incredibly lucky to find two males trying to impress a female with their aerial prowess and fighting skills.  They were so engrossed in their activities that they pretty much ignored me. Canon 7D, 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc  Often one male would be on the ground when the other male would swoop in on him.  Here the foreground bird has just lifted off to meet his adversary. Canon 7D, 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc As was often the case the birds didn’t make actual contact.  In researching this behavior I’ve learned that they will sometimes lock talons and fall to the ground before releasing.  I suspect that as they rush toward each other they look for a weakness in defense – if they spot one in the other birds defensive body position they would likely make aggressive contact.   Canon 7D, 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Most of the time both birds stayed on the ground or flew very low but occasionally one of the owls would fly several hundred feet up and circle over the other male (and the female, who was…

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Short-eared Owl in the Fog

My friend Mia and I had such a great time in June with the Short-eared Owls at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in Montana that we decided to return in September.  Getting close to them was more difficult this time because they weren’t nesting and feeding young.  However, one morning we got lucky.    A cooperative Short-eared Owl  When we awoke we were socked in with heavy fog.  As it slowly began to clear we went looking for birds and found this owl perched in the middle of the road.  As we approached, it flew a short distance to this post and then allowed us to get very close.  We’re sure this is the same female that we had photographed in June on the same territory.       Short-eared Owl female looking for voles She was very accepting of our presence and within a few minutes was looking for voles below her post perch.  We were right at the edge of the fog and as it would swirl around us, alternately getting thicker and then clearing a bit, we knew that some of our images would show the effect of the fog more than others.  The soft feathers of owls don’t give up their fine detail to photographers easily, even in the best of conditions.  But we simply couldn’t pass up this opportunity with this beautiful female and we still got some shots we like very much.      Short-eared Owl checking us out Occasionally her attention would be diverted from the potential prey in the…

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The Short-eared Owls of Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge

  Male Short-eared Owl with a vole for the family  Red Rock Lakes NWR is simply a wonderful spot on this ol’ earth.  Located in SW Montana about halfway between Yellowstone National Park on the East and Interstate 15 on the west, it lies in a beautiful high elevation valley and the setting is stunning.  It’s not for the faint of heart though as the weather holds many potentially nasty surprises and the access to the refuge is primitive at best.  But that’s one of the things I love about Red Rock.    In late June we had the place mostly to ourselves, which is ideal for me.    Coyotes howling, other  mammals  in abundance, birds plentiful, wildflowers galore, spectacular mountain scenery, amazing sunrises and sunsets, weather surprises, bad roads to limit visitation, isolation and especially those incredible Short-eared Owls.   I love this place!    Female at the nest with one of two youngsters  On our second day there we found a pair of nesting Short-eared Owls with two youngsters.  The nest was at the base of a sagebrush within a few feet of a road.  I have a (very unscientific) theory as to why these birds would make their nest so close to a road with regular traffic.   Coyotes are very common on the refuge – we heard them howling often and would see them but they were seldom close to any road.   They seem to avoid roads whenever possible.   A nest on the ground would be very vulnerable to coyote predation.  So I wonder if the choice to build…

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