Northern Harrier In Flight
Usually winter has been the best time for me to photograph Northern Harriers but my opportunities with them have been relatively sparse this year. So with the season rapidly coming to an end I was delighted to find this cooperative bird yesterday morning near the Great Salt Lake. 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4 The harrier allowed a close approach while hunting and this time the light was favorable too. Occasionally the bird would look up and provide good eye contact. 1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4 I found it difficult to get anything but sky in the background but for this image it dipped down low enough for me to get the lake as a backdrop. 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4 The sun was high enough that the far wing was usually shaded while in the down position but I think there’s still enough light and detail there to make this work. 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4 Here the bird was a little past me but the slight look back I got helped to compensate for that. It’s very possible that this was my last good harrier opportunity until next winter so I’m appreciative of yesterday’s serendipitous encounter. Ron
Just A Shot That I Like… #20 – American Kestrel With Moxie
I hope you’ll bear with me but for this post I decided to go whimsical. This image isn’t particularly strong technically but it always brings a smile to my face and I thought others might enjoy it. 1/1250, f/10, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This plastic owl sits atop a weather station transmitter at Farmington Bay Wildlife Management Area. The obvious purpose of the owl is to scare birds away from the transmitter. You can see how well it works with kestrels. American Kestrels are just about the only species of bird that I’ve seen dare to perch on top of this phony Great Horned Owl. I’ve always admired these courageous little falcons for their pluck and wondered, only slightly in jest, if they might have a bit of a Napoleon complex. Truly a bird with cojones – both sexes. Ron
Farmington Bay Bald Eagles 2012 – A Bust!
Farmington Bay Wildlife Management Area is typically a mecca for birders and bird photographers during January and February. When it gets very cold many of Utah’s wintering Bald Eagles congregate there and create quite the spectacle for avian enthusiasts. Though I’m not particularly fond of photographing birds among throngs of people I usually can’t resist the unusual opportunity with these magnificent birds and join in the fray multiple times during the “season”. 1/1250, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc One thing that especially appeals to me about Farmington Bay is the opportunity to photograph these eagles in flight with the Wasatch Mountains as a background. Even though such a background makes it much more difficult for focus to “lock on” the bird I really like the dramatic backdrop the dark, often shaded mountains provide when there’s light on the eagle – much more appealing for me than the typical blue sky background. Typically there are hundreds of eagles at the refuge during “prime time”. I once counted 225 birds and that’s just the ones I could see. Others have reported from 300-400 birds. This photo should give you some idea, though it shows just one small portion of Unit One. The concentration of birds was about the same that day everywhere you looked over the ice. This is the famous “eagle tree”. I’ve seen as many as 20 birds on this one perch alone. Of course the eagles prefer to look south over the ice and water so it’s difficult…
Just A Shot That I Like… #19 – Burrowing Owl Catching Its Balance
Burrowing Owls on Antelope Island are often a hit or miss proposition. Occasionally one can find an accessible burrow occupied by multiple birds and get just close enough for quality images without disturbing the owls. But more often than not they’re difficult to find – especially in a location where the angle of light is good in the morning when I prefer to shoot. 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This bird was one of a family of owls on the north end of the island that would occasionally sun themselves in the early morning at the top of a sagebrush perch. Here the owl had momentarily lost its balance while changing position on the branch and I was able to catch a pose I liked as it recovered. I love backgrounds like this that the island and the bokeh of my lens often provide. Ron
Shrikes, Pellets and Photographer’s Frustrations
For about three years now one of my photography goals has been to get a series of quality shots showing a Loggerhead Shrike regurgitating a pellet. My requirements were that the images must be sharp with good detail and light, there must be no significant distractions or clutter to interfere with the behavior, there should be light in the eye (a catch light) and the last shot must show the pellet after it has left the birds mouth. This post is a progress report of sorts on how I’ve fared with the goal. I’ll include some lessons I’ve learned and mistakes I’ve made so I hope you’ll bear with me through a few less than ideal images which help to illustrate some of those lessons. 1/1250, f/8, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This was my first image of a shrike ejecting a pellet (3/3/10). I didn’t anticipate it happening and wasn’t even sure what was going on until I processed the image. I got two almost identical shots that showed the pellet in the mouth and missed the pellet as it was ejected (I think I remember my buffer filling up just about then). I was also too far away for good image quality – this is a large crop. 1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc On the next opportunity (8/5/11) I was frustrated by obstructing branches and a poor light angle. While this young bird was ejecting the pellet it was facing mostly toward me which put its face and the pellet in shadow. Then the juvenile did something completely unexpected…
Just A Shot That I Like… #18 – Fighting Ring-necked Pheasants
In this neck of the woods Ring-necked Pheasants start feeling frisky about this time of year. Territories are being established, hormones flowing and feathers flying. When fighting, these birds flutter up against each other breast to breast, bite each other’s wattles and sometimes make high leaps toward each other using claws, bills and spurs. It can be quite dramatic. Just as the sun came over the mountains I pulled into a gravel hunter’s parking lot at the refuge and noticed these two birds going at it. I assumed they wouldn’t let me get close enough for quality photos but they were so intent on their battle that they mostly ignored me and I was able to get just close enough. 1/640, f/9, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc With the low light I was fighting for both shutter speed and depth of field and was pleasantly surprised to get both birds sharp at these settings. I’m always very happy to get behavioral shots like this, busy background or not. Ron
Birds, Spiders, Brine Flies and Mercury Contamination on Antelope Island
Last Sunday I found this Northern Shrike on Antelope Island enthusiastically singing away as if spring were already in full bloom. Their predatory habits and interesting behaviors make them a favorite species for me but when I got home that day I read an article in the Salt Lake Tribune that made me wonder just how healthy their populations near the Great Salt Lake really are. North end of Antelope Island, 2/5/12 The reason for my concern is a bit complex but I’ll summarize: For over 100 years smelting operations have been responsible for high levels of elemental mercury in the Great Salt Lake and its sediments. Microorganisms in the lake convert the mercury to methyl mercury which is the toxic form of the element that can be absorbed by tissues of living things. Brine fly larvae living in the lake then absorb the methyl mercury and when they hatch the adult flies are consumed by spiders living in the vegetation around the lake. Finally, those spiders are eaten by the many bird species living and nesting along the shoreline. But very little is known about the movement of mercury compounds through Great Salt Lake ecosystems, including the possible effects of toxic methyl mercury on birds so Westminster College’s Great Salt Lake Institute was recently awarded a $250,000 grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation to study its possible effects. Antelope Island causeway, 8/29/11 The number and total biomass of brine flies in late summer around the lake literally boggles the mind but this shot should give you some idea. It was taken in late August of…
American Kestrels In Snow, Frost And Fog
Photographing American Kestrels near the Great Salt Lake during the coldest parts of winter is a two-edged sword. On the one hand the frigid temperatures in December and January make the kestrels “stickier” – much less likely to fly off before you can get close enough for quality photos. But there’s a down side too. Moisture from the lake often forms fog or at least makes the air so incredibly laden with moisture that good lighting often becomes an issue. I’ll still take the shot under some of those conditions though – a close-up with the bird large enough to very nearly fill the frame is still usually much more desirable than a well-lit bird so small in the frame that little detail can be seen. 2000, f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc In this image the background is snow and there had been a blizzard the day before which had stacked snow up on one side of the perch. This was one of the first times I’d ever been close enough to a kestrel to get a frame-filling image and I well remember having a case of “buck fever” while photographing him at such close range. Also a bit unusual was the fact that I was actually looking slightly down at him – something that doesn’t happen often with kestrels. 1600, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This shot illustrates well what you get when the atmosphere is so laden with moisture when it’s very cold – fog, low but even light, some reduction in detail and sometimes…
Just A Shot That I Like… #17 – Short-eared Owl In Flight With A Vole In Its Beak
This is another image from my time with the Short-eared Owls at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. This male was kept very busy hunting voles and feeding his mate and youngsters at the nest. Typically I would see him hunting far off, dive for a vole, and if he was successful he’d occasionally eat the vole himself but most often he would return with it to a favorite perch in the vicinity of the nest – and without exception he would always carry the vole in his talons before he got to the perch (and always his left talon, but I covered that topic in another post). 1/1600, f/5.6, ISO 800, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc However, just before (or just after) he took off from the perch to deliver the meal to his family he would always transfer the vole from his talons to his beak. I have a theory as to why he did so. The nest was on the ground at the base of a sagebrush. Whenever the male landed at the entrance to the nest with the vole the female would rush out and very aggressively grab the vole. And I DO mean aggressively! If I’d been him I’d have been afraid to get that close to her with food. So the male would approach the nest very gingerly with the vole in his beak and drop it in front of him and quickly retreat as she rushed out. I suspect it was easier for him to avoid a confrontation with her if he could quickly drop…
A Tragedy For A Coyote On Antelope Island
I’ve always thought that nature photographers are some of the luckiest folks on the planet because we get to spend so much time in the natural world that we love and we see some of the most exhilirating sights and wonderous events that nature has to offer. But occasionally there’s a dark side. Yesterday was a difficult day in the field for me on Antelope Island. Be forewarned that the photos are of documentary quality only and that at least one of them may be difficult for some to view. When we spotted this coyote hunting in the grass for voles it was successful almost immediately and quickly swallowed its lunch. A few seconds later I noticed that it looked like it had caught another vole because I thought I could see the vole hanging out the left side of it’s mouth – the grasses were thick and it was difficult to tell. Then we spotted another coyote about a quarter mile behind this one and within a few seconds this animal also caught sight of the second coyote. When it did so there was an instantantaneous reaction – it put its ears down, its tail between its legs and started running through the grass like a bat out of hell to get away from the second coyote. I fired off a few shots as it ran but certainly didn’t get anything to be proud of. It wasn’t until I got home and processed the running shots that I knew something was terribly wrong. This…