East Canyon Red-tailed Hawk
I spent yesterday morning in the Wasatch Mountains looking for raptors and other birds. I had my best luck with Red-tailed Hawks.
Category: Diurnal Raptors
An Osprey Pirouette
This female Osprey seemed stiff and less confident of her agility immediately after being relieved from many hours of nesting duty.
Joshua Trees, A Red-tailed Hawk And Waiting For The Moon
My recent camping trip to the Mojave Desert of southwestern Utah was slow on birds but I didn’t come home “skunked” either.
A Digestive Surprise For A Young Swainson’s Hawk
I believe this juvenile Swainson’s Hawk was taken by surprise by what it found in its mouth.
Northern Harriers Playing With Toys
In a recent post I documented “play” in Northern Harriers. Two days ago I photographed two of them playing – with each other and with “toys”.
An Acrobatic Red-tailed Hawk
Raptors sometimes pull some pretty crazy maneuvers during take-off (the last 9 images in this post are sequential with no images in the sequence left out).
Montana Merlin In The Fog
Last month I posted a few images of this Merlin in the fog. For subtle reasons this may be my favorite from the entire session with the bird.
Curious Swainson’s Hawk Checking Me Out In Flight
Occasionally soaring raptors fly in quite close to observers and I’m convinced that sometimes it’s simply a matter of curiosity.
Northern Harrier “Playing”
Play has been well documented in some bird species and I believe I photographed that behavior in a Northern Harrier this week. This bird was too far away for quality images but I think the behavior is well documented in the photographs. I first spotted this hawk on an ugly metal fence post but as soon as I stopped my pickup to watch it through my lens the wary bird took off. Almost immediately it performed a spectacular and classic harrier mid-air maneuver by changing directions and pouncing on something in the grasses. I presumed it to be a vole. For about two minutes the bird continually struggled, wrestled and pounced on something I couldn’t see. The activity was quite frenetic and I took many photos of it. As I watched through my lens I wondered if the harrier was trying to avoid being bitten by a vole or even a larger rodent. Eventually the harrier took off with its “prey”, which turned out to be dried cow poop. Cow pies are common in this area because refuge managers run cattle there in the summer in an attempt to control invasive phragmites (personally I’m not a fan of cattle on public lands but that’s another story…). The harrier carried the cow pie only a few feet… before dropping it. Whether that was done deliberately or not I don’t know but I suspect that it was because in the image just before this one (just as the pie…
Juvenile Swainson’s Hawk Presenting Its Best Side In Flight
I realize that choosing a “best side” of this beautiful hawk might be a matter of opinion but for me this is it.
Why Did The Red-tailed Hawk Cross The Road?
Sometimes when I’m photographing birds I find myself wondering “Why did that bird do that?”. Arriving at a reliable answer can be an exercise in frustration but often I can’t help myself, even when the behavior in question is a trivial one.
The Evolution Of A Nest Tree Over Three Summers
This lonely fir tree at the east end of Montana’s Centennial Valley has had some interesting history over the last several years.
Cloning Background Elements – A Slippery Slope
Sooner or later every serious nature photographer must confront the question – How much image alteration during processing is ethically “too much”?
Southwest Montana Kestrels – A Status Update
American Kestrels have long been North America’s most abundant bird of prey but over recent decades their numbers have declined precipitously. For that reason I pay particular notice to kestrel numbers when I return to the same area year after year and because I spend so much time in southwest Montana that region is near the top of my “kestrel watching” areas.
Adult Swainson’s Hawk In Flight
In contrast to my post yesterday of a juvenile Swainson’s Hawk, this bird is an adult. In fact it’s the parent of that juvenile. I seldom post the same species back to back but I thought the comparison might be interesting.
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An Osprey Pirouette
This female Osprey seemed stiff and less confident of her agility immediately after being relieved from many hours of nesting duty.
Joshua Trees, A Red-tailed Hawk And Waiting For The Moon
My recent camping trip to the Mojave Desert of southwestern Utah was slow on birds but I didn’t come home “skunked” either.
A Digestive Surprise For A Young Swainson’s Hawk
I believe this juvenile Swainson’s Hawk was taken by surprise by what it found in its mouth.
Northern Harriers Playing With Toys
In a recent post I documented “play” in Northern Harriers. Two days ago I photographed two of them playing – with each other and with “toys”.
An Acrobatic Red-tailed Hawk
Raptors sometimes pull some pretty crazy maneuvers during take-off (the last 9 images in this post are sequential with no images in the sequence left out).
Montana Merlin In The Fog
Last month I posted a few images of this Merlin in the fog. For subtle reasons this may be my favorite from the entire session with the bird.
Curious Swainson’s Hawk Checking Me Out In Flight
Occasionally soaring raptors fly in quite close to observers and I’m convinced that sometimes it’s simply a matter of curiosity.
Northern Harrier “Playing”
Play has been well documented in some bird species and I believe I photographed that behavior in a Northern Harrier this week. This bird was too far away for quality images but I think the behavior is well documented in the photographs. I first spotted this hawk on an ugly metal fence post but as soon as I stopped my pickup to watch it through my lens the wary bird took off. Almost immediately it performed a spectacular and classic harrier mid-air maneuver by changing directions and pouncing on something in the grasses. I presumed it to be a vole. For about two minutes the bird continually struggled, wrestled and pounced on something I couldn’t see. The activity was quite frenetic and I took many photos of it. As I watched through my lens I wondered if the harrier was trying to avoid being bitten by a vole or even a larger rodent. Eventually the harrier took off with its “prey”, which turned out to be dried cow poop. Cow pies are common in this area because refuge managers run cattle there in the summer in an attempt to control invasive phragmites (personally I’m not a fan of cattle on public lands but that’s another story…). The harrier carried the cow pie only a few feet… before dropping it. Whether that was done deliberately or not I don’t know but I suspect that it was because in the image just before this one (just as the pie…
Juvenile Swainson’s Hawk Presenting Its Best Side In Flight
I realize that choosing a “best side” of this beautiful hawk might be a matter of opinion but for me this is it.
Why Did The Red-tailed Hawk Cross The Road?
Sometimes when I’m photographing birds I find myself wondering “Why did that bird do that?”. Arriving at a reliable answer can be an exercise in frustration but often I can’t help myself, even when the behavior in question is a trivial one.
The Evolution Of A Nest Tree Over Three Summers
This lonely fir tree at the east end of Montana’s Centennial Valley has had some interesting history over the last several years.
Cloning Background Elements – A Slippery Slope
Sooner or later every serious nature photographer must confront the question – How much image alteration during processing is ethically “too much”?
Southwest Montana Kestrels – A Status Update
American Kestrels have long been North America’s most abundant bird of prey but over recent decades their numbers have declined precipitously. For that reason I pay particular notice to kestrel numbers when I return to the same area year after year and because I spend so much time in southwest Montana that region is near the top of my “kestrel watching” areas.
Adult Swainson’s Hawk In Flight
In contrast to my post yesterday of a juvenile Swainson’s Hawk, this bird is an adult. In fact it’s the parent of that juvenile. I seldom post the same species back to back but I thought the comparison might be interesting.