A Black-headed Grosbeak, The Canon 7D And A Rookie Mistake
I found this male Black-headed Grosbeak foraging in a tree near a Montana mountain lake on my recent camping trip up there. The setting is a little cluttered but to my eye it’s an attractive clutter.
Sage Thrasher On Rabbitbrush
Though there’s a fair number of Sage Thrashers on Antelope Island they’ve been a difficult quarry for me. Originally called the Mountain Mockingbird, this smallest of the thrasher species is known to be particularly elusive, frequently running on the ground rather than taking flight and their wandering habits during migration have caused them to be poorly studied.
How Ravens Collect Chick Feces At The Nest – I Had No Idea!
When this parent flew to the nest I was mostly watching and not clicking the shutter. I had no idea that I was about to see something new to me. Suddenly one of the chicks began backing up to the edge of the nest and I figured it was about to defecate over the side. I was wrong.
Western Wood-Peewee
I often make the observation that one of the reasons I’m a bird photographer rather than a birder is because many of the trappings of traditional birding simply don’t appeal to me – keeping lists, in particular. But I’ll admit that getting a “lifer” rings my bell.
And a lifer I got on this last Montana trip – a Western Wood-Peewee. Several of them, in fact.
Forster’s Tern
Whenever I watch terns in flight I’m struck by their grace, beauty and incredible maneuverability as they cruise over the water surface hunting for small fish.
Swainson’s Hawk In Full Flight
In Montana (and elsewhere I presume) orange paint on fence posts is used to mark private property and prevent trespass and hunting without permission on private lands. Apparently some land owners are color blind and use red paint instead of orange but the universally understood message is still the same – stay out!
Not all of the posts are so-marked (perhaps 10%?) but the birds I photograph sure have a nasty habit of choosing those ugly posts to perch on when I’m trying to photograph them. Such was the case with this Swainson’s Hawk a few days ago in western Montana.
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…
Dancing Bluebird
From the moment this flashy male Mountain Bluebird landed on a weathered and sun-bleached Montana fencepost he seemed hyped-up and twitchy.
Lark Sparrow With Prey
Last week on Antelope Island this Lark Sparrow popped up onto a sagebrush very close to me with a large, juicy grasshopper. The bird seemed to be deliberately conspicuous about its prize and I briefly wondered why.
Another Ferruginous Hawk Nest With Chicks
Last week I posted images of a Ferruginous Hawk nest with chicks in Montana. I actually photographed two of them. These chicks were slightly older than those in my first post.