Short-eared Owl Displaying Ear Tufts
Short-eared Owls are always a primary photographic quarry for me whenever I visit the Centennial Valley in sw Montana but on this last trip I only found one. However, that lone bird made up for it by showing me something fairly unusual. 1/1600, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc These owls have short ear tufts (“ears”) but they are only rarely seen because they are usually laying down on the top of the head. Here they can be seen, but just barely. 1/2000, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc However, when the bird turned to face me for just a moment the tufts became visible. Typically they are only erected in a defensive pose and I don’t know if this owl deliberately displayed them to me because it thought I was too close or if a breeze from the back lifted them involuntarily. I suspect it was the latter because in the shots right after this one other feathers on the head look to be blown erect by the breeze. Either way I was glad to see the tufts. I have hundreds of images of this species and very few of them show the “ears”. Ron
A Badger At Eye Level
We just returned a couple of hours ago from an 8 day photo/camping trip in western Montana so this will be a short post since I’m all tuckered out and still have lots to do to catch up on the backlog that built up while I was gone – aggravated by the fact that my laptop Wi-Fi died during the trip. Frustration! 1/1250, f/9, ISO 500, 500 f/4 Yesterday evening we were photographing a family of Swainson’s Hawks while parked next to a small hill. The hill was right next to my truck and the top of it was just about eye level. Suddenly a badger poked its head up out of the grasses, sage and rabbitbrush on top of the hill to check us out. He/she seemed just as curious about us as we were about it. 1/800, f/13, ISO 500, 500 f/4 The extremely low angle made it impossible to get the whole critter in the image but I really liked the eye-level portraits I was able to get anyway. For this shot the badger raised itself slightly and I lifted my lens as high as possible from inside the truck to get as much of the lower body in the image as I could. This was one of our most photographically successful trips to Montana and I hope to post quite a few images (raptors in particular) from our journey in the near future. Ron
Swainson’s Hawk Take-off Sequence
While cruising the back roads of Glacier County, Montana two days ago we came across this Swainson’s Hawk hunting grasshoppers from an old fence post. Hunting is easy now because it’s harvest time up here and the huge grasshoppers are everywhere – as evidenced by the colorful and greasy windshields of almost every vehicle you see. 1/4000, f/6.3, iso 500, 500 f/4 When the bird seemed about to take off I made one of those split-second decisions that every bird photographer is faced with. Since it looked like the hawk might launch at a 90 degree angle to my position (and stay the same distance from me for the first few flight strokes) I decided to prefocus on the bird and then not attempt to actively maintain focus in flight for fear of having focus lock on to the background instead of the bird. This time it worked… 1/4000, f/6.3, iso 500, 500 f/4 The bird begins to launch. 1/4000, f/6.3, iso 500, 500 f/4 The beginning of my burst caught the hawk in one of those dynamic, stretched-out postures that I like. As you can see the bird lost a feather as it took off. 1/4000, f/6.3, iso 500, 500 f/4 By the next wing stroke it was already to the next fence post. I got several more sharp shots as the bird passed to my left but of course the further it flew the less eye contact I had so the early shots were the best of the bunch. The Swainson’s…
Critters On My Family Farm In Glacier County, Montana
This post is an experiment. I’m on the road right now, visiting the family farm in nw Montana where I grew up. As a result, these images were processed on my laptop so I’m unsure about sharpness, brightness, color and other aspects of processing. I’ve never posted from my laptop before but thought I’d take a chance and see what happens… All three of these images were taken on the farm in the last 24 hours. 1/800, f/11, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc There has been a breeding pair of Great Horned Owls on the farm for many years now, residing in the multiple old barns and granaries. This is the male. 1/1250, f/8, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc As we came down the hill toward the house this morning I spotted these two White-tail fawns drinking in the creek. It seems to me that they’re pretty young for so late in the year. 1/800, f/11, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc The Gray Partridge is common on the farm but extremely difficult to approach. This is as close as I’ve been able to get so far but you can bet I’ll be working to get closer until we leave for home. (I was at f/11 because I was trying to photograph multiple birds as they scurried through the grass). This species used to be called the Hungarian Partridge, so everyone up here has always called them “huns”. So far it’s been a great trip and I hope to have…
Rustic Red-tail
This is another Montana Red-tailed Hawk, photographed in Beaverhead County a few weeks ago. 1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc I tend to like rustic settings like this for raptors in general but particularly for Red-tails because they have adapted so well to our rural habitats. 1/800, f/9, ISO 500, 500 f/4 This hawk was hunting from the post and changed positions on the perch several times to get a better view in different directions. 1/1250, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4 Soon the bird went into stretch mode. 1/500, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4 But eventually it spotted something of interest on the ground (and very close to me) and flew down to investigate. It didn’t find any prey and here it is looking back toward the fence – deciding which fence post to use for its next perch. 1/1000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4 It chose another near-by post to hunt from but that hunting station didn’t last long because… 1/1000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4 a very aggressive robin took exception to this new location. 1/500, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4 The hawk took the bombardment for a short period but eventually took off in apparent exasperation – with the angry robin continuing to buzz the raptor all the way. The more time I spend with raptors the more I realize just how much harassment they get from other bird species. At times they seem to have no peace whatsoever….
A Banner Year For Coyotes On Antelope Island
If you think this coyote looks befuddled, you’re right. 1/1250, f/7.1/, ISO 400, 100-400 @115mm As it crossed the road right in front of me (about two weeks ago) it suddenly stopped in complete bewilderment because it could feel something on the left side of its neck, but when it turned to investigate the young coyote apparently couldn’t see what it was because the object was too close to its head and it was hidden in the crease of the neck. 1/1250, f/7.1/, ISO 400, 100-400 @115mm The offending object was a clump of grass which I could finally see when the coyote was able to nudge the bottom of the clump with its jaw and push it up where it was visible. 1/1650, f/7.1/, ISO 400, 100-400 @115mm The youngster finally got the grass clump pulled away from its fur, held it for a few moments in triumph and then unceremoniously dropped it and continued across the road… 1/800, f/6.3/, ISO 400, 100-400 @180mm where it captured a vole in less than two minutes. 1/640, f/5.6/, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc About a week ago I found this coyote staring at me in the early morning light. I love this warm light in the grassy setting. To me it almost looks like the coyote is smiling at me. 1/640, f/7.1/, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc And on the same morning, about 20 minutes later, another coyote crossed the road in front of me and proceeded to…
Bathing Willet Adult
Several weeks ago I found this adult Willet near the shore of a lake in Beaverhead County in sw Montana. Most of the shorebirds in this remote area of the state aren’t used to people so they’re difficult to approach but this single adult (and a couple of juveniles – likely the offspring of this bird) were very cooperative – which makes me speculate that this adult had migrated from an area where it had become accustomed to humans. 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4 It spent quite a while feeding on aquatic insects and crustaceans. 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4 There was a variable breeze blowing and in many of these shots and I liked the effect it had on the water surface. 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4 Then the Willet began to bathe… 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4 and occasionally would even give me direct eye contact. 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4 As it completed its bath it did a few wing flaps to get rid of some of the water. 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4 And then a vigorous shake to help dry and rearrange the feathers. 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4 Then of course there was the post-bath preening. 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f/4 And finally a nice wing stretch to complete the bathing ritual. The wing movement scared up some flying insects from the foreground vegetation. Willets appear to be pretty much “plain brown birds” until they…
Some More Burrowing Owls
I simply can’t resist photographing Burrowing Owls. 1/100, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc These youngsters often have a balance problem when they try to perch on the relatively unstable sunflowers, which can be a good opportunity for the photographer to get some interesting poses. One of the problems here was that the sun was just coming up and the light was very low as you can see from my very slow shutter speed. Even though this bird fluttered on the perch for quite a while I ended up trashing most of those shots because they just weren’t sharp enough. But the other problem just about drove me batty for a while. For some reason my Canon 7D wouldn’t allow me to adjust my exposure (ev). How very frustrating to have this bird giving me such nice poses while I’m thinking the entire time that I’m over-exposing the shots and can’t do anything about it! It turned out that my exposure for these shots was just right (I’ve done no exposure adjustment in post-processing with this image) but it took me (us) a half hour to figure out what the problem was with my camera. Mia saved the day by downloading the 7D manual to her phone and in the end the problem turned out to be that I had inadvertently switched on the “lock” button on my camera. Sheesh! 1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 400, 100-400 @ 300mm I thought some of you might like to “meet” most of the Burrowing Owl family I’ve been photographing this summer. From left to right #3 and #5…
Swainson’s Hawk Take-off
A couple of weeks ago I watched as a couple of juvenile Swainson’s Hawks hunted grasshoppers on the ground in Montana’s Centennial Valley. The birds were often largely obscured by grasses so I waited for take-off. . 1/2000, f 7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc In a situation like this it’s usually very difficult to lock and maintain focus on the bird as it takes off because of the closeness of the grasses in the background – typically autofocus tries to lock on to the background elements when they’re this close to the subject. But in this case there was enough contrast between the light-colored grasses and the relatively dark bird that I was able to get 13 images where the bird was sharp and no body parts were clipped. The problem with many of them (as often happens) was that the timing of the wing flaps was synchronized with the burst rate of my Canon 7D and the wing position in many of those shots wasn’t ideal. I wasn’t bothered by the flying insect below the bird for two reasons: 1), it amused me because it almost looks like the bug is taking flying lessons from the hawk and 2), it was natural and it was there. 1/2000, f 7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc When I get similar shots such as these I can’t help comparing the strengths and weaknesses of each. I prefer the better eye contact in the first image but like the wing and tail position and better light under the wing…
Fascinating Folks of the Centennial Valley, Montana – Living and Dead
The Centennial Valley of sw Montana is one of my favorite places on the planet. It has birds galore, lots of wildlife, beautiful scenery and blessed isolation. It’s not an easy place to visit for the casual visitor as one must negotiate many miles of dirt/gravel roads just to get there and then usually contend with wild weather and the utter lack of services – including restaurants, gas stations and motels. In my many trips to the area I’ve had innumerable flat tires, been stuck in bad weather for days on end and taken home hundreds of pounds of mud, rocks and cow poop that attached to the underside of my pickup and camping trailer and had to be hosed off on my driveway. But I love the place! One of the many holds the Centennial Valley has on me is the fascinating history of the region. I’m a huge fan of western history in general – especially that of Utah and Montana and the valley is dotted with abandoned homesteads dating back to the 1890’s. This area had to be one of the most difficult areas in the lower 48 states for settlers to simply survive, much less eke out a living – as evidenced by the fact that there were many more people trying to live in the valley back then than are found there now. The history of the valley is filled with tales of hardship, danger and incredibly interesting characters including indians, trappers, hunters, miners, homesteaders, squatters, cowboys, sheepmen, rustlers and moonshiners. It’s not my purpose to recount the detailed…