The rest of the story.
Yesterday I posted a single photo of a female Northern Harrier taken three days ago in a remote area of northern Utah. That photo was one of a series of images documenting some interesting harrier courtship behavior and I told readers that I’d “tell the rest of the story tomorrow”.
Well, tomorrow is here.
It all started when I saw this male Northern Harrier land on a faraway hillside. It wasn’t until I got him in my viewfinder that I realized he had prey in his bill. Harriers in this remote area are usually so spooky they won’t allow an even moderately close approach and normally I wouldn’t even have tried to get closer because I’d almost certainly fail.
But because the bird had prey, and because he was so tiny in my viewfinder in the glaring light, I thought there was a small chance he was actually a Prairie Falcon so I made the attempt. As I creeped forward in my pickup he didn’t fly off and that’s when I took this photo and confirmed his ID as a male Northern Harrier.
I didn’t realize it at the time but the “prey” in his bill turned out to be only a scrap of mammal hide and fur, probably from a small rodent but possibly from some larger mammal that he’d scavenged.
He took off with the food scrap in his bill and…
landed with it on another faraway hillside behind me. I had to back up to get closer to him and take this photo and the photos below.
For a few moments he appeared to be trying to pick off some tiny bits of flesh from the mammal hide but to be honest I’m not sure what he was doing. It almost looks like he was trying to ‘kill’ it. After this photo was taken he spent most of his time with the scrap in his talons but otherwise he completely ignored it. He seemed to be waiting for something but for what I didn’t know.
Eventually he took off with the scrap in his talons but..
he was only a couple of feet off of the snow-covered ground when he…
deliberately dropped it.
He watched it fall.
This is the last photo I got where part of the scrap is still in the frame, at lower left.
At this point of course I followed him to my right with my lens and took many more shots of him in flight, not realizing that there was something else more interesting going on with the food scrap he’d dropped.
A female harrier that I didn’t even know was in the area had retrieved the scrap immediately after it was dropped and flew past my pickup with it. This is the photo I posted yesterday.
I’m quite certain the male meant the scrap to be a gift for the female he was courting. This time of year it’s typical behavor for harriers to use “courtship feeding” as a method of forming pair bonds.
She landed with it on yet another hillside.
But after realizing that there was really no meat on it she…
took off, rejecting the scrap and leaving it behind.
At the time I remember wondering if this might be the harrier version of a clueless human male giving his wife a new vacuum cleaner as a birthday or anniversary gift. My mind goes to places like that, even in the field in the heat of the moment.
This is one of the last shots I got of the female as she flew past me. She clearly has nothing in her bill or talons and I never saw either bird again.
Mate feeding is a harrier behavior I’ve observed multiple times over the years. They do it during courtship and when the female is on the nest but usually the food transfer is made high in the air when the male drops the food and the female snags it as it’s falling. This was the first time I’ve seen it happen so low to the ground, low enough that the female probably had to retrieve it from the ground. It’s also the first time I’ve seen the female reject the food gift.
But with such a pitiful excuse for food, I don’t blame her. I also have to wonder if she eventually rejected him as a mate candidate. I wouldn’t blame her for that either.
Ron
Notes:
- If you’re a pixel-peeper you may have noticed some narrow sharpening halos in some of these photos. I could have avoided them if I’d taken the time to mask the bird before sharpening but with this many photos the time required would have been more than I was willing to spend on it.
- Image techs for most of these photos were in the range of 1/5000 – 1/6400, f/5.6, ISO 125, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc. But the earlier shots had even faster shutter speeds (1/8000) because at first I was shooting at ISO 400. That snow was bright, thus the incredibly fast shutter speeds.
I’m late to this one, but wanted to say thanks for this post Ron. Some beautiful photos and a very interesting and humorous narrative, as well as a great side-by-side comparison of a male and female. I’m definitely going to point some friends who are not regular readers to this post.
And I really like the last photo – maybe more than yesterday’s beautiful shot. Technically maybe it’s not as perfect, but I love the great shot of the bottom of her wings, as well as the nice match of her orange colors with the lichen on the rock.
She wasn’t having it! Love the grey male. So pretty
Arwen, the male’s a looker but the female’s no slouch either.
I’m thinking this scrap may have fallen more into “blender” territory. (How sexy!) 😂 In any event, both birds are beautiful and I do hope they eventually get together. Can you imagine how gorgeous their kids will be? Hopefully, there will be more food for fancy future flirtations. 💕
“Can you imagine how gorgeous their kids will be?’
There’d definitely be a lot of top-drawer genes involved wouldn’t there, Marty.
P.S. I would actually welcome a fancy vacuum cleaner with all the bells, whistles, and attachments as a birthday gift. I already bought my own Vitamix, so I’m good for a blender.
I really like the shadows on the snow. He is a beautiful male. I thought it looked like a piece of cow hide, especially the length of hair and curly texture. Maybe since he dropped it on the ground without technically offering it to her he will be forgiven. I liked my vacuum for Christmas (5 years into the marriage), but I wanted one. For the last 25 years of a 36 year marriage I don’t get a gift unless I buy it myself and say “here this is from you”. This past year I did not get a birthday or Christmas gift. With supply issues my order got cancelled till they had the items in. So I guess Jon will be putting some cash towards my lens I bought myself for Valentines, another gift-less holiday unless I buy a little something for myself. I bought a good gift this year, perfect holiday, I love it!
So it sounds like you’re getting another new lens, April. Good for you.
I am willing to give this “triple G” (gorgeous Grey Ghost) the benefit of the doubt, I hope the female appreciates the difficulty of hunting in tough circumstances and doesn’t dismiss him out of hand. Every one of your photos makes clear he is a perfect specimen of Harrierhood (as is she)—I swoon to think of their offspring! 😎
“I swoon to think of their offspring! 😎”
Made me smile, Chris.
Really like the photo study and narration. Really nice looking raptors.
The analogy I thought of was, ‘thought it was a diamond and it turned out to be a cubic zirconia’.
Thanks, Michael. I haven’t thought about those zirconia fake diamonds for years.
Excellent series Ron – great captures!! Still in love with my Kitchenaid mixer that was a Christmas gift our first year of marriage. 😄
Thanks, Kathleen. Maybe Christmas is a little different than birthdays or anniversaries. Or maybe not. Depends on the recipient I guess.
He’s a very handsome bird. I hope she gives him a second chance. His shadows on the snow are beautiful – as per your “reflections” posts, I found my “eyeballs on the ground”, looking up, visualizing the undersides.
I like his his little self-satisfied grin in photo #4, where he’s coming straight at you with his prize – “She’s gonna LOVE this!” 💕
I like his shadows too, Carolyn. A lot, which is why I cropped some of those photos as I did.
And you’re right about his “grin” in photo #4. I hadn’t noticed until you pointed it out.
Meatless fur… how dare he ! My husband caught crap for giving me a vacuum for Christmas, he had to explain that’s what she asked for…🤣
Diana, if that’s what you asked for, that’s different.
That’s a great informative sequence of shots – thank you!
And I agree with others, that guy is out of luck, considering the “trashy trinket” he brought. She showed her displeasure very quickly!
Thanks, Quentin.
The photos are wonderful with the snow background. Don’t know what post photo magic you mentioned to help with the snow but it worked! Your narrative makes me want to go out in the field and just watch…..
Catherine, I just used exposure adjustments on the snow to tone it down a little.
while we are on the subject of weird hawk behaviors. My friend has either a Sharps-shined or Cooper that lands under her birdfeeder and seems to be eating something and she cannot figure out what. Any ideas, Cornell didn’t help. Beautiful pictures.
Jo, both species are strict carnivores and eat mostly small birds. A Sharpie might be eating insects..
Thanks, I will let her know. I thought maybe suet pieces, but she said that feeder isn’t near.
Remarkable account and photography. Your exposures hit the sweet spot in achieving excellent detail of the harriers while avoiding any blowouts of the snow. I’m sure many a photographer would be on cloud nine to get shots like these of the grey ghost.
One hopes the male was able to win the lady back with a decidedly less pathetic offering.
Pathetic offering indeed!
Thanks for appreciating the exposure, Lyle. Thankfully I could dink around with it a bit during processing but that dinking around is partly responsible for the sharpening halos I mentioned in the notes. Tradeoffs…
Wonderful series Ron. 🙂 Can hear her going “what the hell??!!! 🙂 Always something unexpected showing up – keeps it interesting for sure!
Thank you, Judy.
Beautiful captures with great humor ! Between your vacuum cleaner
guess and Arwen’s “toupee” guess yesterday, it’s a good thing that the
hapless suitor can’t read Feathered Photography– he’d be embarrassed–
and with the “pickins” so slim in all that snow, he was surely doing his best !
I liked the last shot of the female–very dynamic !
Thank you, Kris. I hope I haven’t been picking on the poor male undeservedly. As you say, he was probably doing his best.
Very engaging observations and excellent photos. It would have been very easy to miss this encounter and interpret its meaning.
“It would have been very easy to miss this encounter and interpret its meaning.”
Exactly, Ken. I think it takes an experienced bird photographer to fully realize that.
Enjoyed the pictures and the humor.
Good.
Wonderful post with education, excellent photos, and humor. I am very envious Ron because as I have mentioned before I have never seen a Grey Ghost. We have the one very entertaining female who has been with us at Willow Lake for years and we have rare visits by the males, but in 17 years I have never seen one. Very true what you mention here about them flying off if you come close, but a different ball game if they have prey. I once took more than 200 close ups of our female while she was working on
a Coot carcass she had stolen from a Prairie Falcon.
Love the reference to the clueless male having the stupidity to bring a vacuum cleaner type gift. In the distant past I like many males have done that and quickly learned to never do it again.
“we have rare visits by the males, but in 17 years I have never seen one”
Everett, with the resident female being there for so many years, and you being so observant, I’m surprised. But it isn’t the first time I’ve been surprised by birds.
Love the story that makes those photos live large. And yes, it took approx 2 years for my spouse to figure really basic things out and 50 years later we still laugh about some of the “clueless” unlearning he had to do. Of course we are both still unlearning many things even after 50 years. Good things, like that unnoticed female appearing, sometimes do appear on the periphery if we are lucky.
“Good things, like that unnoticed female appearing, sometimes do appear on the periphery if we are lucky.”
Exactly, Granny Pat. With birds you just never know what might be about to happen. For me that’s part of the magic of bird photography.
I Love this whole series, Ron!! They are such beautiful Raptors. I will tell you I laughed out loud at your vacuum cleaner comparison to that that none food “gift”!!
Jo Ann, I remember being that “clueless husband” early on in my marriage. It didn’t take me long to figure it out though. She gave me good reason to… 🙂