Tag: beaverhead county
Ferruginous Hawks, High Country News And Memories
A recent article in High Country News brought back many fond memories of photographing Ferruginous Hawks in Montana.
Northern Pygmy Owl With A Vole For Breakfast
A Resurgence Of Short-eared Owls In The West?
In my experience Short-eared Owls have been few and far between in several western states for the entire nine years I’ve been photographing birds. Not so this year!
Centennial Valley Golden Eagle (and a brief camping trip report)
I didn’t see as many Golden Eagles on my camping trip as I hoped to but I was pleased that this one allowed me a reasonably close approach.
Swainson’s Hawk (and the wire we cannot see)
Yesterday morning I inadvertantly flushed this Swainson’s Hawk off prey as I drove a remote dirt road in the Centennail Valley.
Montana Short-eared Owl In Flight
I’m finding a fair number of Short-eared Owls on this trip to Montana and like our birds in Utah they like to perch on and take off from fence posts. But this male actually took off from the ground.
Eureka! – A Northern Pygmy Owl With Rodent Prey
A lifer of any species will make my week but a Northern Pygmy Owl with prey literally gave me buck fever I was so excited.
Saturated Swainson’s Hawk Enduring A Downpour
Mating Swainson’s Hawks Sequence
Five days ago I photographed an entire mating sequence of a pair of Swainson’s Hawks in Beaverhead County, Montana.
Short-eared Owl With Prey
Greater Sage Grouse In The Centennial Valley
I was driving the dirt roads while on the lookout for raptors (mostly) when out of the corner of my eye to the far right I saw (just barely) a flock of Mallards flush up from the barrow pit next to the road and just a few feet away. I gave them a quick glance and drove on but a couple of seconds later Mia hollered out from the back seat her patented “Stop, bird!”, which I immediately did. Turned out they weren’t Mallards, they were Sage Grouse – about a dozen of them.
Compositional Mind Games
There are times when I really struggle with composition when I’m cropping an image. To a degree, composition is a matter of taste and personal preference, though most folks would agree on a few major principles. Some of those might be: avoid clipping body parts or cropping too tight on the subject the subject usually (though not always) should not be centered in the frame leave plenty of room in the frame in the direction the subject is facing, looking or flying (in the case of birds) Where I sometimes run into difficulty making a composition decision is when there are other compositional elements in the image that I might like to include in the final version of the photo. Thanks largely to the influence of Richard Ditch, I’ve become fond of strong graphic lines in some of my images, as long as those lines come from natural or rustic elements (power poles or wires just won’t cut it with me). This summer I photographed a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk on an old, rustic pole fence in Beaverhead County, Montana and I’m having a very difficult time making cropping decisions on some of those images. My natural tendency is to crop fairly tightly on the bird to get good detail on the subject but I also like the graphic lines provided by the fence with different cropping choices. Several times I’ve thought I’d finally figured out which version I prefer, but when I came back to the computer a few hours later and looked at them one more time I was again undecided. Compositional mind…
Swainson’s Hawks Of Montana’s Centennial Valley
On my trip to Montana’s Centennial Valley last month Swainson’s Hawks were very abundant. I found two families of them that would reliably hunt close to a road and since they had become habituated to the traffic they were easier for me to approach as long as I stayed in my pickup truck. 1/1000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This was one of two juveniles along the river at the west end of the valley. Both birds, along with their parents, would repeatedly perch on posts and poles close to my pickup. But it was very difficult to get an acceptable light angle at this location in the morning so I include only this one shot of those birds. 1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc I had more luck with another family (two juvies and one parent) at the east end of the valley. The light angle was better and I also preferred the fence posts in this area – they were older and had more character. 1/500, f/11, ISO 500, 100-400 @ 400mm Occasionally I was able to get both juveniles in the same shot but of course that situation often brings with it a depth of field problem so I switched to the 100-400 zoom and set my aperture at f/11 and focused on the post between the two birds. It seemed to work pretty well. 1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc I loved the “butterscotch” colors on these two juveniles – particularly this one. 1/2000,…
Goofy Red-tailed Hawk
When I first encountered this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk in Beaverhead County three weeks ago it was eating a vole on top of this fence post. Soon after it finished the rodent it began to act a little strange. 1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4 In these first few shots it may look like the hawk is simply shaking or “ruffling” its feathers but I’m convinced that wasn’t the case. I’ve seen many birds perform that feather maintenance activity but what was happening here looked quite different. I remember telling Mia while it was occurring that it looked like the bird was “dancing” on top of the post. 1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4 The hawk went through some strange gyrations and postures that were different from what you see with a simple “shake” and they lasted an unusually long time (I have many shots of the behavior). This tail-up posture, for example, is reminiscent of defecation but the bird didn’t defecate and the wing position isn’t what you would normally see during defecation anyway. 1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4 The bird wasn’t shaking to get these unusual feather positions either – instead it seemed to be deliberately and relatively slowly (compared to shaking) erecting its feathers. I have 8 – 10 shots that are very similar to this one and they’re not all in sequence. 1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4 Then the bird decided to take off from the post… 1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4 but…
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Ferruginous Hawks, High Country News And Memories
A recent article in High Country News brought back many fond memories of photographing Ferruginous Hawks in Montana.
Northern Pygmy Owl With A Vole For Breakfast
A Resurgence Of Short-eared Owls In The West?
In my experience Short-eared Owls have been few and far between in several western states for the entire nine years I’ve been photographing birds. Not so this year!
Centennial Valley Golden Eagle (and a brief camping trip report)
I didn’t see as many Golden Eagles on my camping trip as I hoped to but I was pleased that this one allowed me a reasonably close approach.
Swainson’s Hawk (and the wire we cannot see)
Yesterday morning I inadvertantly flushed this Swainson’s Hawk off prey as I drove a remote dirt road in the Centennail Valley.
Montana Short-eared Owl In Flight
I’m finding a fair number of Short-eared Owls on this trip to Montana and like our birds in Utah they like to perch on and take off from fence posts. But this male actually took off from the ground.
Eureka! – A Northern Pygmy Owl With Rodent Prey
A lifer of any species will make my week but a Northern Pygmy Owl with prey literally gave me buck fever I was so excited.
Saturated Swainson’s Hawk Enduring A Downpour
Mating Swainson’s Hawks Sequence
Five days ago I photographed an entire mating sequence of a pair of Swainson’s Hawks in Beaverhead County, Montana.
Short-eared Owl With Prey
Greater Sage Grouse In The Centennial Valley
I was driving the dirt roads while on the lookout for raptors (mostly) when out of the corner of my eye to the far right I saw (just barely) a flock of Mallards flush up from the barrow pit next to the road and just a few feet away. I gave them a quick glance and drove on but a couple of seconds later Mia hollered out from the back seat her patented “Stop, bird!”, which I immediately did. Turned out they weren’t Mallards, they were Sage Grouse – about a dozen of them.
Compositional Mind Games
There are times when I really struggle with composition when I’m cropping an image. To a degree, composition is a matter of taste and personal preference, though most folks would agree on a few major principles. Some of those might be: avoid clipping body parts or cropping too tight on the subject the subject usually (though not always) should not be centered in the frame leave plenty of room in the frame in the direction the subject is facing, looking or flying (in the case of birds) Where I sometimes run into difficulty making a composition decision is when there are other compositional elements in the image that I might like to include in the final version of the photo. Thanks largely to the influence of Richard Ditch, I’ve become fond of strong graphic lines in some of my images, as long as those lines come from natural or rustic elements (power poles or wires just won’t cut it with me). This summer I photographed a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk on an old, rustic pole fence in Beaverhead County, Montana and I’m having a very difficult time making cropping decisions on some of those images. My natural tendency is to crop fairly tightly on the bird to get good detail on the subject but I also like the graphic lines provided by the fence with different cropping choices. Several times I’ve thought I’d finally figured out which version I prefer, but when I came back to the computer a few hours later and looked at them one more time I was again undecided. Compositional mind…
Swainson’s Hawks Of Montana’s Centennial Valley
On my trip to Montana’s Centennial Valley last month Swainson’s Hawks were very abundant. I found two families of them that would reliably hunt close to a road and since they had become habituated to the traffic they were easier for me to approach as long as I stayed in my pickup truck. 1/1000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This was one of two juveniles along the river at the west end of the valley. Both birds, along with their parents, would repeatedly perch on posts and poles close to my pickup. But it was very difficult to get an acceptable light angle at this location in the morning so I include only this one shot of those birds. 1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc I had more luck with another family (two juvies and one parent) at the east end of the valley. The light angle was better and I also preferred the fence posts in this area – they were older and had more character. 1/500, f/11, ISO 500, 100-400 @ 400mm Occasionally I was able to get both juveniles in the same shot but of course that situation often brings with it a depth of field problem so I switched to the 100-400 zoom and set my aperture at f/11 and focused on the post between the two birds. It seemed to work pretty well. 1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc I loved the “butterscotch” colors on these two juveniles – particularly this one. 1/2000,…
Goofy Red-tailed Hawk
When I first encountered this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk in Beaverhead County three weeks ago it was eating a vole on top of this fence post. Soon after it finished the rodent it began to act a little strange. 1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4 In these first few shots it may look like the hawk is simply shaking or “ruffling” its feathers but I’m convinced that wasn’t the case. I’ve seen many birds perform that feather maintenance activity but what was happening here looked quite different. I remember telling Mia while it was occurring that it looked like the bird was “dancing” on top of the post. 1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4 The hawk went through some strange gyrations and postures that were different from what you see with a simple “shake” and they lasted an unusually long time (I have many shots of the behavior). This tail-up posture, for example, is reminiscent of defecation but the bird didn’t defecate and the wing position isn’t what you would normally see during defecation anyway. 1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4 The bird wasn’t shaking to get these unusual feather positions either – instead it seemed to be deliberately and relatively slowly (compared to shaking) erecting its feathers. I have 8 – 10 shots that are very similar to this one and they’re not all in sequence. 1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4 Then the bird decided to take off from the post… 1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4 but…