Tag: beaverhead county

Ferruginous Hawk On A Rustic Perch

Ferruginous Hawks are very impressive birds when you get this close to them.  They are massive broad-winged hawks with a wide gape, large head and burly chest.  They are our largest buteo and share many characteristics with the Golden Eagle. Last week in Montana I came across this bird on what is apparently a favorite perch – a rustic entrance gate to an irrigated farm in a small, beautiful and lush valley in Beaverhead County.  I say “favorite perch” because I found this same bird (apparently) on the same gate, and in the same position,  last month.   1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4  These hawks are “sit and wait” hunters, which is exactly what this bird was doing.  Their preferred prey is ground squirrels and prairie dogs and based on the number of badger holes in the valley I’d guess that there’s plenty of ground squirrels available.     This is another version of the same image, cropped differently and more closely to better show the group of gnats (no-see-ums) swarming around the head of the hawk (to the left, I cloned them out in the first image). In some ways the biologist in me actually prefers the second version.     1/2000, f/8, ISO 500, 500 f/4 When it took off it was facing away and I clipped a wing-tip but I decided to include this image anyway to show the bird up close and in flight. Ron

Continue reading

Swainson’s Hawk Regurgitating Pellets

Western Montana has been awash in Swainson’s Hawks this summer.  From the Canadian border (Glacier County) to the southern border with Idaho (Beaverhead County) I found them in significantly larger numbers than I have seen in previous summers.  I hope this very unscientific observation is accurate and that it bodes them well as a species because their numbers have been declining to the point where they are listed as a Species of Special Concern in several western states.    1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4  I found this handsome juvenile this past week along a county road in Beaverhead County.  At first it was very relaxed and assumed this clenched fist pose that is so typical of many buteo species when they’re at ease and resting.      1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4 But soon it began to arch its neck and I recognized that it was about to attempt to expel a pellet.  I had already taken my tc off in anticipation of take-off so I decided to leave it off because so often in the past I’ve missed the falling pellet as it dropped out of frame at the bottom.      1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4 Then, with the nictitating membrane pulled over the eye, the bird began to retch. These few images showing pellet ejection may give the viewer the impression that it all happened very quickly.  It didn’t.  From beginning to end the whole process took over four minutes.  During that time there were alternating periods of retching and resting and it didn’t look to be a…

Continue reading

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

Continue reading

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….

Continue reading

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…

Continue reading

A Mated Pair Of Red-tailed Hawks

Our recent trip to the Centennial Valley of sw Montana lasted 6 days.  On the last morning, only an hour or so before we had to leave, we found these cooperative adult Red-tailed Hawks.  I couldn’t believe our luck – warm, early morning light coming from the right direction, a clean natural perch, an interesting and varying background with clouds and blue sky, they allowed us close to them for over 20 minutes and there were two of them!   1/800, f/9, ISO 500, 500 f/4. 1.4 tc  When we first found them they were perched together.  I strongly suspect they’re a mated pair (though I don’t know that unequivocally) since they’re adults and many Red-tails stay paired year-round.     1/1250, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4. 1.4 tc  The two birds stayed together on the perch for almost 10 minutes as we photographed them and then one of them flew off.     1/1250, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4. 1.4 tc The hawk left behind immediately decided to occupy the vacated perch…      1/1250, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4. 1.4 tc and did so for some time.      1/500, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4. 1.4 tc   But the bird that flew off landed in a nearby conifer and immediately had to contend with a pair of very aggressive and persistent American Kestrels.      1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4. 1.4 tc   Soon the kestral-harrassed hawk returned, only to find its preferred perch already occupied.      1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4. 1.4 tc  There was some…

Continue reading

Finally – A Cooperative Ferruginous Hawk

We had to go all the way to Montana to find a cooperative Ferruginous Hawk but three days ago we found one in Beaverhead County.  My files on this species are woefully lacking and it’s not because I haven’t worked hard at getting acceptable images of them.  I’ve made many trips to the island mountain ranges of western Utah specifically to photograph this handsome raptor but until this last week I could count the number of nice images I had of them on one hand.  They just won’t let me approach them. This single bird made the enitre trip well worth it.  The Ferruginous Hawk has been described as “the largest, most powerful and grandest of our buteos – a truly regal bird”.  In fact the scientific name for the species is Buteo regalis – a fitting descriptor of this hawk.    1/4000, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc We found this bird on our way home, beside a long and isolated dirt road and I was even pulling my camping trailer which didn’t spook it.  This first shot was taken from some distance because I assumed it would fly off when we got closer.  It didn’t.  Here it looks like the bird is upset with us for coming along but I think it was reacting to another Ferruginous Hawk that was in the vicinity (though we didn’t yet know it was there).  This road has quite a bit of traffic (horse trailers, logging trucks etc) considering how isolated it is and since these birds are “sit and wait hunters” I believe this…

Continue reading

Red-tailed Hawk Take-off

We just returned last night from a 5 1/2 day camping/photo trip to sw Montana.  It was simply an awesome journey with mostly great weather and light, lots of wildlife and birds (especially raptors), spectacular scenery, interesting characters and no significant mishaps but now the piper must be paid.  I have an endless list of chores to catch up on which includes unpacking, washing gobs of dried mud and cow poop off of my pickup and camping trailer and then culling thousands of new images and processing the keepers. So, for obvious reasons this will be a short post.   1/2000. f/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc  This image was taken last Thursday morning in Beaverhead County, Montana.  Lots  of factors have to play out to get a nice image of a bird taking off and for this shot I was able to get many of them right but I was missing an attractive, natural perch.  In this case it was an ugly power pole insulator and wire so I decided to clone them out.  I’m a very reluctant cloner but when I just can’t resist the temptation I always disclose. Because of the trip I’ve been slow in posting and commenting on other blogs.  I’ll remedy both shortcomings in the near future. Ron

Continue reading