causeway – Page 3 – Feathered Photography

Rough-legged Hawk “Playing”

This post is about behavior. Please don’t expect high quality images… Last March I found this juvenile (I believe) Rough-legged Hawk along the Antelope Island causeway on a cold morning after a light snowfall. It was perched on a windrow of debris consisting mostly of piles of old brine fly pupae casings. For a while the bird seemed content to simply rest and watch me. But soon it apparently got bored… and walked about two feet to my right to investigate a clump of fly casings (red arrow) that had been cemented together by melting snow that had re-frozen during the night. The hawk reached over to grasp the clump with its talons… retrieved the clump,… transferred it to its beak and then instantly tossed it to the ground. I assumed that was that, figuring the bird had thought it might be something edible, then discarded it for good when it wasn’t. But that wasn’t what happened. The hawk grabbed the clump with its talons once again… and then seemed to contemplate for a few seconds about just what to do next. Which turned out to be something like “give the clump a toss and see where it lands”. The hawk immediately started walking over to where the clump had landed behind the mound of fly casings, where it can’t be seen in this image. It used its wings for a little more stability as it negotiated the hill of debris. …

Prairie Falcon Redux

It’s been 16 days since I’ve seen a Prairie Falcon along the causeway and I had just about given up on them for the short-term. But yesterday, as I was leaving the island after a relatively fruitless morning, I spotted that distinctive flash of bright breast whites up ahead among the rocks and very close to the road. Sure enough, as I got closer I could tell it was Falco mexicanus perched on a colorful boulder. 1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in, background is the Great Salt Lake I’ll sheepishly admit to the fact that in situations like this I typically come down with a case of “buck fever” (aggravated by the fact that I have familial tremors) and sure enough I was actually shaking with excitement and dread as I tried to maneuver my pickup to get a clear shot of the bird through all the vegetation along the road. With this particular perch, this was the most unobstructed view I could get. In case you’re wondering what the source of my “dread” could be, I’m a dedicated pessimist at heart (which Mia mercilessly teases me about) and I’m always convinced that the bird will take off a split second before I get the pickup stopped in a safe place and my finger on the shutter. That exact thing had happened twice that morning with Red-tailed Hawks. 1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in, background is…

Snow Geese On The Causeway

For the last few days there have been two Snow Geese along the causeway to Antelope Island – an adult and a juvenile. This species nests on the arctic tundra and is in the midst of migration to more hospitable climes for the winter. Parents stay with their young through the first winter and families generally don’t break up until they reach their breeding grounds the following spring. 1/500, f/7.1, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light When we relocated these two birds yesterday morning (we’d also seen them two days before) the sun had not yet cleared the elevated causeway road so the birds were still in shade. I include this image so adult and juvenile can be compared and so that you can see the dramatic changes that occur when the warm, early morning light advances on the birds. 1/640, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light Here, the light has just reached the head and neck of the adult. 1/640, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light A few seconds later it has advanced to the feet but not to the ground. It was interesting to watch the light move down the bird. 1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light I didn’t get a lot of action out of either bird – this yawn from the juvenile… 1/1000, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light and a wing and foot stretch was about the only “excitement”…

An Incredible Experience With A Prairie Falcon And A Hapless Duck

This morning on Antelope Island was a photographic bust – heavy snow coming down most of the time and no light to speak of. So finally, after several hours of hoping the clouds would clear, we put our tails between our legs and headed for home. Talk about perfect timing! We’d traversed about half the causeway when the clouds parted, light blossomed and a serendipitous adult Prairie Falcon appeared, hunting for ducks. The falcon ambushed this male Northern Shoveler just as I was getting my pickup in position, so I missed that shot but this one was taken within a second or two of the strike. The duck is bleeding heavily. It struggled for a minute or so, and then died in the water. After the attack, the falcon would perch along the causeway for a short period, then take off and fly over the duck. This was done repeatedly. With my 500mm plus tc I could never get both the duck and the falcon in the image – this is as close as I came. 1/1600, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in Here, the falcon is perched to watch the duck out on the water. 1/2500, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in I had a difficult time locking focus on the falcon as it buzzed the duck because the textured water background was so close to the bird. I kept getting sharp shots of…

Prairie Falcon In Flight, With Prey

This image may look familiar to some viewers because I’ve previously posted another photo of this bird with a different wing position. I only got those two sharp shots of the falcon and I’d never processed this image before because the bird was too tight in the frame. I’d actually forgotten about this photo until recently when I decided it was worth making the effort to add some canvas to improve the composition. 1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, natural light, not baited, set up or called in I found this juvenile feeding on its duck kill along the Antelope Island causeway last winter on a dark and blustery late morning. Two ravens began to harass the falcon with the apparent intention of stealing the duck so the rightful owner of the prey took off with the prize in tow. Within seconds, an adult Bald Eagle moved in and forced the falcon to drop the duck. One thing I find interesting about this image is the angle of the bird to the horizon – it looks like it’s flying downward, but in reality it’s actually gaining altitude. Normally, with the bird at this flight attitude, I’d rotate counterclockwise a little to make the flight angle more realistic looking, but since the horizon is in the background it’s obvious that the shot doesn’t need rotation since the horizon is level. The reason for the angled flight attack is the load that the falcon is hauling while it’s trying to gain altitude. The lower background is the dark, stormy and…

A Northern Harrier Kind Of Morning

Normally I avoid doing back to back posts on the same species but I went out shooting immediately after I published that last post and surprisingly it turned out to be a heckuva harrier morning. I’ve mentioned before that I usually have my best luck with harriers in the middle of winter, but yesterday I found two cooperative birds. 1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in This beauty was hunkered down for a break from hunting and let me get surprisingly close. It was early morning, the light was warm, and the bird posed for me for a long time. I chose to post this almost direct look from the hawk for a reason – because out of all those images, this one shows the unique harrier facial disc best. A facial disc is a concave arrangement of feathers on the face of some birds (most notably owls) that forms a circular parabaloid that collects sound waves and redirects them toward the ears. In harriers the disc is less prominent than in owls, but larger in relative size because it extends to the neck, so it is commonly referred to as a facial ruff, rather than a disc. The large ear openings of harriers are buried in the feathers of the head and can’t be seen. The angle of the disc or ruff feathers can be adjusted to alter the focal length of the sound waves they’re collecting, which allows the bird to “focus” at different distances – a…

Escaped Falconry Bird – Peregrine Falcon

Early this morning, just as the sun was coming up over the Wasatch Mountains, we came across this adult Peregrine Falcon, with prey, along the causeway to Antelope Island State Park. It is apparently another escaped falconry bird as it had obvious falconry anklets above its feet, though the actual jesses had been removed. 1/500, f/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This first image was taken where we first found it – along the edge of the causeway and next to the Great Salt Lake shoreline. A few seconds after this shot was taken the bird took off. 1/800, f/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc But seven minutes later, as we proceeded along the causeway, we found the bird perched on this highway post. 1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This shot was taken as the falcon took off from the post. You’ll notice that the leather falconry anklets, sans jesses, are apparent in each of the above three images. 1/2000, f/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc And the last time we saw the bird it had landed far away on the large boulders lining the east side of the Antelope Island Marina. We’ve reported this sighting to the Utah Division of Natural Resources and they’ve told us that they will follow up on it. I’ve always admired the sport of falconry on several levels. Falconers generally have a deep devotion and personal attachment to their birds that I respect and they and their organizations have done a lot for raptor conservation…

Porcupine On The Antelope Island Causeway

On Wednesday morning of this week I had quite the surprise as I drove out to Antelope Island at dawn. Between the island and the last bridge going west – a Porcupine! The bristly critter was in the shade of the elevated road but I couldn’t resist taking a few photos anyway. I got pretty close to take these images but it didn’t seem very concerned about it – with their prickly defense there’s few predators that will regularly mess with them other than the Fisher, and there’s not many of them on the island… Most predators (and even many non-predators) know, instinctively or from experience, that bothering a Porcupine simply is not worth the risk (see my recent post of a Moose that fell victim to a Porcupine). Porcupines are not uncommon on the island but in my experience it’s unusual to see them up close. Typically they’re in the Russian Olives a fair distance from the road and in an area which can’t legally be hiked. It was fun to get such a good look at this one but I was concerned that it would become road-kill on the causeway. All morning, while I was on the island, I was fearful that I’d find it dead on the road as I drove out. Thankfully I didn’t. I hope it made its way safely back to the island. Ron

Behaving Badly On Antelope Island

Mia and I spend an inordinate amount of time on Antelope Island photographing birds so naturally we run across a lot of other folks out there enjoying that wonderful place too – hikers, photographers, campers, swimmers, educational groups and everyday sightseers to name a few. Most of the people who visit the island seem to be considerate of others and mindful of the regulations in place that are meant to make a visit to the island an enjoyable experience for all and protect the natural assets of this jewel in the middle of the Great Salt Lake. There are glaring exceptions though and occasionally (all too often) we see folks doing things that leave us shaking our heads in bewilderment. I decided to post about this issue in the hope that it might be a reminder to some of the “fringe element” who may be considering a visit to the island that if you flaunt the rules you may pay a price. Where recognizable, faces have been blurred in these photos. If the image file numbers (seen by passing your cursor over the photo) don’t seem to make logical, sequential sense it’s because I used multiple cameras and lenses for the images. Last Friday morning as we left Bridger Bay Campground we noticed that this guy in a Jeep had decided to go for a cross-country joy ride across the prairie grasses to get a closer look at a couple of bison, despite the fact that they’re nearly always easy to find right next to the road. In the foreground you can see the…

A Wonderful Antelope Island Morning – Including A Long-tailed Duck

It’s been a frustrating photography week for both Mia and I for a variety of reasons but it’s primarily been because the weather and light have seriously sucked – big time!. So when yesterday’s dawn showed promise we headed for the island with high hopes but low expectations because there haven’t been many bird opportunities out there recently. We were in for some pleasant surprises. I’ll present these images in the order they were taken to give a feel for the morning. 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc We had barely made it onto the causeway before this Rough-legged hawk began to entertain us. We watched as it ate a vole and then it immediately walked about two feet to its left and picked something else up with its foot. At first I assumed it was another vole, either alive or from a food cache. But in looking at close-ups of some of the photos I’m pretty sure it’s only a rock with old brine fly larvae cases and small twigs frozen to it. Then this hawk did something strange – it transferred the “rock” to its beak and deliberately flung it a good distance – here it’s flying through the air Then the bird walked over, picked up the rock in its left foot and flew off with it. My curiosity is killing me as to just what was going on. Obviously this isn’t a great shot but I was fascinated by the behavior. 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Next this Northern Harrier gave us…

Just A Shot That I Like… #22 – Wet And Bedraggled Prairie Falcon

For several months this winter this young Prairie Falcon would hang around the Antelope Island causeway in the early mornings hunting ducks (mostly Northern Shovelers). There’s very few ducks there now so the falcon spends most of its time on the island (rather than on the causeway) hunting Western Meadowlarks and Horned Larks. Since falcons are much more difficult to approach in the wide open expanses of the island I doubt I’ll get any more closeups of this bird anytime soon. 1/1600, f/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f/4 On this mostly cloudy morning the light was poor but shortly after I approached this bird there was just enough sun coming through a thin spot in the clouds to give me some light in the eyes. Some of the lower feathers of the falcon were wet and bedraggled which I assume was caused by hunting ducks in the shallows of the lake. I’m always delighted whenever I can get close enough to one of the larger falcons that I can remove my teleconverter. To say that doesn’t happen very often is huge understatement. Ron

Prairie Falcon – A Nemesis Resolved

Every avian photographer has their “nemesis birds” – a species or two that the gods of photography have foiled any and every attempt at getting quality images of. For me the Prairie Falcon has been at or near the top of that list. I particularly love to photograph raptors but locating and then getting close to this falcon in good light has eluded me for five years now. But two days ago I resolved that dilemma! 1/4000, f/5.6, ISO 640, 1.4 tc We first spotted this bird coming towards us along the Antelope Island causeway just as the sun peeked over the Wasatch. It soon landed on this stump and in good light but I wasn’t quite as close to the bird as I’d like to have been. Soon it lifted off and hunted the causeway going west, causing quite a ruckus among the gulls, shorebirds and ducks as it approached them. It was fairly easy to track the falcon by watching for groups of panicked birds taking to the air. 1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 800, 1.4 tc Next it landed on this interesting rock and I was able to get a little closer. The background is a little funky with the harsh color transition between water and rocky shoreline passing through the bird but I liked the perch and the good look at the entire bird, including tail. I suspect that this falcon has learned the fine art of thievery. Earlier this week we observed a Prairie Falcon along the causeway chase off a Peregrine Falcon from its Ruddy Duck…

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