Lark Sparrow
I’ve never had much luck with Lark Sparrows but this spring my fortunes with them have improved. It seems to be a banner year for them on Antelope Island and some of them even cooperate occasionally. In fact, most of the images in this post are of the same bird. It was so intent on its singing and territory declaration that it flew from perch to perch for quite a while and gave us some close looks. 1/1600, f/10, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc These are large, long-tailed sparrows with a distinctive chestnut, black and white facial pattern that gives them a harlequin look. The sparrow is perched on a dried sunflower with significant depth so I went to f/10 for this shot to try to get as many of the seed heads as sharp as possible. 1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc In this shot the same sparrow is changing its position on a sagebrush perch and I was able to catch it with a wing and tail position that I like. I do wish there were no sage leaves behind the head though. 1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc After it settled its position on the sage it gave me some nice eye contact. 1/3200, f/8, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc I’ve said before on this blog how much I enjoy sage perches but they’re not without their problems for the photographer. Dead twigs from last years growth often stick up above the…
The Mystery Of The Curlew Egg
A couple of days ago we spotted a far off Long-billed Curlew in flight with something in its bill. It was much too distant for decent photos but I was curious about what it was carrying so I scoped it with my 500mm. Even at that great distance it was obvious that the bird was carrying an egg. I actually fired off a couple of frames but the curlew was so far away that I just deleted those images when I got home. I wish I hadn’t now… I’ve seen and photographed birds carrying egg fragments from the nest after the hatching of their chicks multiple times but this seemed a little strange because it looked like an entire egg rather than just a fragment (which I didn’t think at all likely or even possible). Another thing that strikes me as unusual is the fact that this bird was several hundred feet in the air and flew a significant distance with the egg even though BNA Online says that when curlews dispose of eggshells they fly only “several meters” from the nest before alighting to drop the shell. We watched the bird fly and then eventually land on a gravel road where we were able to find the abandoned egg. Here you see it undisturbed as we found it. Now I’m no curlew expert but I’m going to speculate that this egg didn’t “hatch”. It doesn’t look like it has been pipped from the inside by the egg tooth of the chick and besides the hole in the egg simply has to…
Curlew Peekaboo Take-off
When Long-billed Curlews take off they have a little trick they use to get airborne quickly. This is our largest North American shorebird and in addition to their extremely long bill they have very long legs. Since this is a grassland species it would often be very difficult to get a running start at take-off through the tall vegetation so they use their long legs to full advantage by crouching so low that their belly often touches the ground and then they spring into the air by quickly straightening those very long legs (jumping). This can be problematic for the photographer wishing to get take-off shots because this is a large bird and they explode into the air so quickly that you tend to either cut off part of the bird or lose focus on the subject at the most critical point of the take-off. But knowing and anticipating their behavior can give you a better chance at a quality shot or two. These three images from yesterday on Antelope Island are sequential in a quick burst at take-off. The first two are of crappy quality but I include them to illustrate my point. Here the curlew has crouched as low as it can get prior to take-off. I temporarily lost sharp focus on the head because of the foreground vegetation and because of camera movement as I moved my aim upwards in an attempt to get the entire bird in the frame as it lifted off. In the second shot of the burst, focus has locked onto the bird again as…
Nesting Osprey Of Flaming Gorge
There’s lots of great Osprey photos “out there” but sadly none of them are mine. I’ve tried with this species time and again and something has always gone wrong – crappy perches, poor light, couldn’t get close and most often I couldn’t even find the birds. But recently I finally got some shots of them I like. As I mentioned in an earlier post Mia and I spent three days at Flaming Gorge this week. I was delighted to find a nesting pair of Osprey as I’ve had very little luck with this species in the past. The nest was on a nesting platform right next to a boat-launching ramp so the birds were used to human traffic and went about their normal routine even with vehicles, boats and fishermen in the vicinity. There were no chicks yet but they were obviously incubating eggs. 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc One bird of the pair was always on the nest of course but occasionally the other Osprey would fly by very close and then immediately leave again – it seemed to me that it was “just checking up” to make sure that everything was ok at the nest. I believe this bird is the male. Sexing Osprey can be tricky but on average males have fewer (if any) dark markings on chin, breast and sides of neck than do females. You’ll see what I think is the female of the pair a couple of images later. 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Another shot of the male…
Pied-billed Grebe With A Mouthful
Just a single shot this time. I’m often blown away by the ability of some species to swallow huge prey whole when I have trouble gulping down anything much larger than an aspirin without chewing it first. 1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc A few months ago I watched and photographed this Pied-billed Grebe for 13 minutes as it tried to get this fish down its gullet. Other grebes attempting to steal the prize didn’t make the process an easy one but eventually the bird was successful. It’s not readily apparent in this shot but the fish was much wider than the head of the grebe. I could hardly believe what I saw… Ron
An Osprey, A Fish And A Thieving Magpie
Yesterday Mia and I returned from a three day camping and photo trip to Flaming Gorge. We had great weather for most of our time there and as usual the scenery and ambience were awesome. At an elevation over 6000′ many of the birds that we usually see there apparently haven’t arrived yet but we spent some quality time with a pair of nesting Osprey – a species that I’ve had little luck with in the past. 1/2000, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This pole with all the attached ugly hardware was within a few feet of the nesting platform and early one morning this Osprey landed on the pole with a freshly caught fish. At first I figured that this bird would deliver the fish to its mate on the nest (I have a lot to learn about this species) but it didn’t. It’s intention was to eat the fish itself but as you’ll see, those plans were delayed by an interloper. It didn’t take long for this Black-billed Magpie to show up and torment the rightful owner of the fish. This Osprey removed and dropped the intestines in pieces and it seemed obvious to me that the magpie had learned that particular feeding pattern and came looking for tidbits that had landed on the wires below the Osprey. Here you can see one of those bits in the beak of the magpie that it had picked off of the metal above its head. So far the Osprey doesn’t seem too…
Barn Owl In Flight
Despite the simple gray background this is one of my favorite shots of a Barn Owl in flight. 1/2000, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Getting a catch light in a Barn Owl in flight is no easy task due to their reluctance to fly in good light and their deeply set eyes. This is one of my few shots where the early morning sun was low enough and its angle on the bird’s eye was just right to provide not only light in the eye but a good strong catch light. The presence or absence of a catch light can make or break an image and I’m very glad I got one here. Ron
Grebe Panic
These aren’t great images technically but I thought they documented a fascinating phenomenon well enough. Yesterday there were thousands of these grebes at the first bridge along the Antelope Island causeway. They were actively feeding at the current boundary where the water coming under the bridge met the still water in the north arm of the Great Salt Lake so they were bunched up in incredibly thick masses. Several species of gulls were also present. Each time a gull would pass over the grebes, those directly underneath the gulls would panic and dive into the very shallow water in front of the gull which would create quite the stir in the water. Those grebes just a few inches to either side didn’t react which created a dramatic visual phenomenon as the frothy splash moved in front of and directly beneath the gull. Those times the gulls flew along the length of the mass of grebes the “splash” would travel exactly the same speed as the gull for perhaps 75 yards. This was one of the few times when shooting birds that I wish I’d practiced more with the video capabilities of my Canon 7D. That would be a video that I’d like to see many times as it was quite the spectacle to watch. Ron
A Birthday Bounty Of Bear River Birds
Wednesday of this past week was my “medicare birthday”. I’m sure older readers will understand why my psyche needed some bolstering and I felt justified in burning up some extra gas and putting even more miles on my pickup for a trip to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge to help take my mind off of my advancing age. It was worth the trip! While I didn’t get any truly spectacular shots it was a wonderful morning with excellent weather and light, lots of cooperative birds and great company – thanks to Mia. The only downside was that I had 35 gigs of images to cull when I got home… A couple of notes about my techs: a), regular readers are probably aware that I nearly always shoot with the 1.4 tc attached to my 500 mm. On this morning I got so close to many of the birds that almost half of the images I’ve posted here were taken without the tc and b), many of these images were taken with a very high shutter speed which is typical for me since I’m usually set up for action shots after firing off a few times on more traditional poses. All photos are presented in the order they were taken. 1/1250, f/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc On the road to the refuge we came across a pair of Short-eared Owls cavorting in the air right after the sun came up. One of the owls was “sky dancing” but by the time I got the pickup…
American Kestrel Eating A Vole (graphic)
A couple of months ago I came across this female American Kestrel along the causeway to Antelope Island. She had captured a vole and was in the process of eating it while perched on a road sign. The images I’ve presented here aren’t pretty and won’t appeal to everyone but as I’ve said many times before I’m fascinated by behaviors. 1//1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc She had already decapitated the vole and was in the process of disemboweling it when I found her. Kestrels routinely discard the intestines and she had previously removed the small intestine (portions of which can be seen near the underside of the tail). Here she is dropping the coiled mass of the large intestine. As she attempted to eat the vole the large intestine was right in front of her on the perch and she apparently found its presence right under her face as she dined to be offensive and distracting so she repeatedly tried to drop it over the edge of the sign to get rid of it. Three times she picked it up and dropped it but each time it landed on the edge of the wooden post without going over the edge. 1//1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 t Finally, on the third attempt, she succeeded in dropping it over the edge, but just barely. 1//2500, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 t Now with her dining table cleaned up she was able to attend to the rest of her meal. There…