Tag: peregrine falcon

Another Encounter With The Antelope Island Prairie Falcon

Two days ago we located the Prairie Falcon on the causeway once again.  This bird spends most of its time on the island itself but occasionally ventures onto the causeway to hunt ducks.  I’m quite sure, as are others who are more falcon knowledgeable than I, that it’s the same individual in all of my recent Prairie Falcon posts. Usually I complain about not being able to get close enough to my subjects but here I had the opposite problem.  The only way I could even see this bird was from very close.  From any further away the falcon was completely obstructed by the road edge and the vegetation growing there.  The first two images are essentially full frame (very little crop) and that’s without my tc attached, so the falcon is too tight in the frame but this post is more about falcon adaptations than it is about aesthetics anyway.    1/1600, f/9, ISO 500, 500 f/4, natural light, not baited, set up or called in This bird was a mess!  It had apparently just finished dining on duck so it was wet, blood encrusted and disheveled, with tidbits still clinging to feet and beak.  The bird is meticulously cleaning and scratching its beak with those impressive talons, which seems to me to be about like picking one’s teeth with a Bowie knife.       1/1600, f/9, ISO 500, 500 f/4, natural light, not baited, set up or called in But what I found particularly interesting about many of the images I took of this bird was the good look at the well-defined and bulging crop.  …

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Falconry – A Detriment To The Birds?

As some of you will remember, I’ve recently made two posts calling into question some of the ethics of the “sport” (some don’t like that term) of falconry.   This was the bird that prompted my most recent post – an “escaped” female Peregrine Falcon that I photographed along the Antelope Island causeway a few weeks ago.  You’ll notice that she still has her leather falconry anklets above her feet (only one can be seen in this photo).     And last year, this escaped male American Kestrel was loose near Farmington Bay WMA and it still had not only its anklets but its jesses.  The extreme danger to the bird of having those long, dangling jesses engangle and kill the kestrel is obvious. In both posts I questioned the ethics of falconry in general, but admitting my relative ignorance of the subject I asked (on the second post) for more information from my readers to “enlighten” me on the subject. For those who haven’t seen those posts and have the interest, here’s the links: Escaped Falconry Bird – Peregrine Falcon Escaped Falconry Bird – Peregrine Falcon, Again   Mark Runnels, a master falconer from Oklahoma, responded to the second post with a series of very detailed, knowledgeable and thoughtful comments on falconry – responding to each of my concerns dispassionately and eloquently. However, that post was made on September 17 and Mark didn’t begin to comment until October 23, which means that his valuable information likely went under the radar for most of my readers (very few folks come back to a…

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Escaped Falconry Bird – Peregrine Falcon, Again

This morning, just as the sun was peeking over the mountains, we found this Peregrine Falcon along the Antelope Island Causeway.    1/1000, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in It was feeding on a bird of some kind, possibly prey stolen from another falcon, as we saw two of them as we approached but one flew off.  The falcon was intent on its meal and allowed me to photograph it for 22 minutes.  The lighting was low and difficult, with the light hitting the bright breast of the bird and leaving its darker parts in shade for much of that time.  Photographers will note from my techs that I fiddled with my settings quite a bit – adjusting for the quickly changing light and the removal of my tc in anticipation of take-off.  It was a challenging situation for me.     1/640, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in  It kept wanting/trying to eat the feet and legs of the bird but as far as I could tell the falcon never actually swallowed them.      1/1600, f/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in This falcon is obviously an escaped Falconry bird – notice the leather falconry anklets just above the feet.  Here the falcon turned broadside to the light for just a few moments.      1/3200, f/5, ISO 640, 500 f/4, natural light, not baited, set up…

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The Challenges Of Photographing Falcons On Antelope Island

There are three species of Falcons that reside on Antelope Island through much of the year – the American Kestrel, Prairie Falcon and Peregrine Falcon.  A fourth, the Merlin, is mostly a winter resident.  For many of us there’s something almost mystical about falcons and most bird photographers I know ache to get quality shots of them.  But doing so isn’t easy anywhere and Antelope Island is no exception. In my experience there are three reasons why falcons on the island are so difficult to photograph well: The falcons are there but, with the exception of the kestrel, they’re difficult to find.  For most of the year Peregrines and Prairies hang out in the remotest parts of the island that are inaccessible to us due to park rules and difficulties of negotiating such steep terrain.  However, all three species hunt the causeway during winter so that’s the best chance for the photographer. Generally you just can’t get close to them.  Kestrels are notorious for that trait, probably because they’re so common that lots of folks try with them.  But common certainly doesn’t mean approachable.  It’s not unusual to see a Peregrine perched far out on the mud flats but there’s no way to get close and if you tried they’d fly off.   Prairie Falcons can often be spotted high up on the rocks around the central part of the island but they’re invariably much too far away and seldom perch near the road. Peregrines and Prairies are much easier to approach in very low light, especially just before sunup.  But low light makes for crappy images. I’ve…

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Escaped Falconry Bird – Peregrine Falcon

Early this morning, just as the sun was coming up over the Wasatch Mountains, we came across this adult Peregrine Falcon, with prey,  along the causeway to Antelope Island State Park.  It is apparently another escaped falconry bird as it had obvious falconry anklets above its feet, though the actual jesses had been removed.   1/500, f/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This first image was taken where we first found it – along the edge of the causeway and next to the Great Salt Lake shoreline.  A few seconds after this shot was taken the bird took off.      1/800, f/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc  But seven minutes later, as we proceeded along the causeway, we found the bird perched on this highway post.      1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This shot was taken as the falcon took off from the post.  You’ll notice that the leather falconry anklets, sans jesses, are apparent in each of the above three images.      1/2000, f/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc And the last time we saw the bird it had landed far away on the large boulders lining the east side of the Antelope Island Marina. We’ve reported this sighting to the Utah Division of Natural Resources and they’ve told us that they will follow up on it. I’ve always admired the sport of falconry on several levels.  Falconers generally have a deep devotion and personal attachment to their birds that I respect and they and their organizations have done a lot for raptor conservation…

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Peregrine Falcon Feeding Behavior (graphic)

The Peregrine Falcon has always been a nemesis bird for me.  I’ve occasionally seen them far off, either in flight or perched, but have never been able to get close to one.  All that changed last week when I spent an incredible half hour very close to a young bird while it was feeding on a female Northern Shoveler.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that there was no LIGHT!  DAMMITALL!  It was heavily overcast with only a bright spot in the clouds to mark the position of the sun.   As usual, this kind of situation requires lots of compromises between shutter speed, ISO, depth of field, motion blur, catch lights, ad infinitum…  So compromise I did but I still got many feeding behavior images I find interesting.  And since one of the primary focuses of this blog is bird behaviors, you guessed it – a blog post…  First – a warning.  Some of these photos are graphic.  Proceed with caution if your sensitivities are fragile.     1/250, f/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc As I first approached this falcon it was depluming the duck.  At times feathers were flying everywhere but at these shutter speeds and apertures many of those shots ended up in the delete bin.  At this point I was still using the 1.4 teleconverter but the bird soon let me approach close enough that I was able to ditch the tc and get slightly more shutter speed. Take visual note of the size of the crop in this image when the falcon has just begun…

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Prairie Falcon – A Nemesis Resolved

Every avian photographer has their “nemesis birds” – a species or two that the gods of photography have foiled any and every attempt at getting quality images of.  For me the Prairie Falcon has been at or near the top of that list.   I particularly love to photograph raptors but locating and then getting close to this falcon in good light has eluded me for five years now.  But two days ago I resolved that dilemma!     1/4000, f/5.6, ISO 640, 1.4 tc We first spotted this bird coming towards us along the Antelope Island causeway just as the sun peeked over the Wasatch.  It soon landed on this stump and in good light but I wasn’t quite as close to the bird as I’d like to have been.  Soon it lifted off and hunted the causeway going west, causing quite a ruckus among the gulls, shorebirds and ducks as it approached them.  It was fairly easy to track the falcon by watching for groups of panicked birds taking to the air.      1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 800, 1.4 tc Next it landed on this interesting rock and I was able to get a little closer.  The background is a little funky with the harsh color transition between water and rocky shoreline passing through the bird but I liked the perch and the good look at the entire bird, including tail.  I suspect that this falcon has learned the fine art of thievery.  Earlier this week we observed a Prairie Falcon along the causeway chase off a Peregrine Falcon from its Ruddy Duck…

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