Loggerhead Shrike – Sagebrush Takeoff
During much of the year the breast and belly of these adult birds are white but you’ll notice that this shrike is “wearing to dark” – as the plumage becomes worn the darker bases of the feathers that we don’t usually see are exposed, so feathers in those areas now appear significantly darker than usual (as was documented and discussed in this post several weeks ago).
Since that discussion which included knowledgeable comments from others I’ve noticed the same phenomenon (wearing to dark) in several other species, including Chukars.
Flaring Rough-legged Hawk
No, the Roughies haven’t returned early from their northern adventures. It’s just that I got to thinking about them yesterday while looking through some older images and was reminded of how handsome they are and how much I look forward to their appearance in the fall.
Common Raven Covered With Spider Silk
Antelope Island is crawling with spiders this time of year. Huge spiders. Gazillions of them. They’re quite obvious everywhere you go on the north end of the island and they can be intimidating in the extreme.
Two days ago as I was leaving the island I found this raven on the west end of the causeway road. It looked pretty goofy looking from a distance and as I got closer I began to realize why.
Spotted Sandpiper
I see this species occasionally but they’re very small and I’m usually not close enough or the angle is too steep (shooting from my pick-up) for good shots. I’ve often put down my camera and just observed them – their butt-bumping is quite entertaining to watch.
A Tough Subject – Mourning Dove In Flight
Mourning Doves one of the most difficult of all species I’ve ever attempted to photograph in flight. Their flight is fast and erratic and their take-off speed impressive (most observers are aware of the whistling noise made by their incredibly fast wing beats as they take off and land). All this makes for an aggravatingly difficult bird to photograph in flight – whether at take-off or in full flight. Until yesterday morning I still didn’t have a Mourning Dove flight shot.
Dark Morph Swainson’s Hawk And More
This is the last in my four part series on the color morphs of the Swainson’s Hawk. Today the focus is on the dark morph.
Intermediate Morph Swainson’s Hawk
This is the third of my series of four posts on color morphs of the Swainson’s Hawk that I photographed on my last trip to Montana late last month. Todays bird is an intermediate morph.
The three morph categories are convenient to use but color variation of Swainson’s Hawks is almost continuous from darker to lighter individuals so the morph categories are somewhat arbitrary. I sometimes struggle with feeling confident about which category a particular bird belongs in.
Adult Light Morph Swainson’s Hawk
My last post was of a juvenile light morph Swainson’s Hawk transitioning into a subadult, this bird is an adult light morph and my next post will be of a dark morph Swainson’s (and perhaps an intermediate morph also) – this is turning into a series…
Subadult Light Morph Swainson’s Hawk
I’m always interested in the color phases of the various raptors I encounter so when we found this subadult Light Morph Swainson’s Hawk on July 25 on our last trip to southwest Montana it got my attention. These worn young birds look white-headed in spring and early summer because of fading – much different from the adults.
Wildlife Photography While Pulling A Trailer Isn’t Easy
When we leave one of our favorite Montana camping spots for the long drive home it means almost 30 miles of extremely dusty dirt/gravel roads through prime bird and wildlife habitat before we hit pavement. We nearly always leave at sunrise in case there are photo opportunities on the way out – typically those opportunities include raptors on posts, poles or in flight, songbirds, elk, deer, pronghorn – even badgers.
If the roads are good (as they are this year) that drive takes at least an hour when I’m pulling my camping trailer but if we find wildlife, as we often do, it can take two hours or more. And believe me, photographing wildlife while you’re pulling a trailer is a bit of a challenge.