One afternoon on our latest Montana trip we decided to do a little “sploring” (as we call it) and investigate some country new to us so we spent several hours cruising the back roads on the south side of the Centennial Mountains. We found a beautiful mountain valley very close to the continental divide that provided a variety of habitats but few birds.
But it did give me my best photographic opportunity ever with a Montana coyote.
About a year ago I spent some time with this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk as it honed its hunting skills. It wasn’t yet a very good hunter but it sure tried hard. It typically perched on top of some rocky outcrops as it scanned the grassy slopes below for voles. Then it would swoop down and make its attempt, though it seldom caught anything that I was aware of. Learning to hunt isn’t easy and the price to pay for failure is a dear one.
A little over a month ago I found this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk just standing around on a gravel road in the Centennial Valley of Montana. It’s behavior seemed at least a little odd because I’d never seen this species act so nonchalant when perched so low for so long – especially on a road.
Mourning Doves one of the most difficult of all species I’ve ever attempted to photograph in flight. Their flight is fast and erratic and their take-off speed impressive (most observers are aware of the whistling noise made by their incredibly fast wing beats as they take off and land). All this makes for an aggravatingly difficult bird to photograph in flight – whether at take-off or in full flight. Until yesterday morning I still didn’t have a Mourning Dove flight shot.
In yesterday’s post about grasshopper-eating Prairie Falcons I promised that today’s post would also be about Prairie Falcons. It is, but only one of them – probably the most approachable larger falcon that I’ve ever encountered in the wild.
I learned something last week in Montana’s Centennial Valley – Prairie Falcons eat insects.
In the past I’ve only seen them eat birds and small mammals and cursory research had backed up that observation but if you dig a little deeper in your research (Birds of North America Online, for example) you’ll find mention of lizards and insects being included in their diet. My friend (master falconer) Mark Runnels says that “Prairie Falcons will eat anything. In really bad years I have even heard of them feeding on carrion. You’ll never see a Peregrine do that!”
I often photograph Mountain Bluebirds on my Montana trips but I’ve seldom had the opportunity to work with juveniles. That changed last week when we found a young bird hunting from a fence in early morning light.
I often make the observation that one of the reasons I’m a bird photographer rather than a birder is because many of the trappings of traditional birding simply don’t appeal to me – keeping lists, in particular. But I’ll admit that getting a “lifer” rings my bell.
And a lifer I got on this last Montana trip – a Western Wood-Peewee. Several of them, in fact.
The sturdy, broad-winged buteos tend to be large raptors with correspondingly slower movements than most smaller birds. Most of the time when I’m watching them they’re hunting from an elevated perch or soaring overhead and in neither situation do they typically demonstrate much quickness or agility.
But they can put on quite the show when they need to.
As I reported on my last post, Mia and I found two Mountain Plovers on Antelope Island yesterday. They’re rare in Utah and I had never seen the species before, even in my travels to Montana and Wyoming where they’re more common. It was a very exciting day.
I’ve spent a fair number of years now photographing Great Blue Herons and I’d never before seen this behavior from the species.
I’ve spent many hours watching Rough-legged Hawks hunt. Nearly always they hunt from the air or from elevated perches but several years ago this bird showed me a technique I had never seen before and haven’t since. All of these images are presented in the order they were taken. Techs for these shots were: 1/2000 – 1/3200, f/8. ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in I found the hawk on the ground and as I approached it in my pickup it didn’t fly off as I expected it would. Here it’s looking at me but most of the time it was scanning the grasses in the vicinity – obviously hunting for voles from the ground. It would lift off but only fly a few feet before it landed again. In this first lift-off it had vegetation in its talons. I’ve seen them do this before – it’s almost like they’re reluctant to let go of the plant material after they’ve missed the prey. The hawk landed again… And intensely scanned the surrounding area for prey. Then another take-off… and it flew within inches of the ground… before it pounced on a vole and swallowed it. Then it continued to hunt in the same manner. Another take-off… and another. There’s blood on the right foot from the last vole. The hawk repeatedly did the same thing – take…
A couple of weeks ago I posted two shots of this Short-eared Owl perched on this frost-covered rabbitbrush. In those images the bird was reacting to me which isn’t really a natural behavior. A direct look toward the viewer from those strikingly colorful eyes is certainly riveting but more natural behaviors also appeal to me. 1/500, f/8, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 t c, natural light, not baited, set up or called in Short-eared Owls hunt primarily “on the wing” – they’re typically not “sit and wait” hunters like many other raptors. But this bird noticed what was probably a vole at the base of the rabbitbrush and its reaction to it was obvious. It stared intently down for some time which resulted in a natural pose that I like. Ron
Raptors at take-off typically have a “focused” look about them – they’re all business. But I thought the intensity of purpose of this Red-tailed Hawk was particularly evident. 1/3200, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in Red-tails are “perch-and-wait” hunters so when they take off after prey they already have their eye on it and their focus is seldom diverted as they swoop in for the kill. This juvenile was hunting voles from an elevated rock perch on Antelope Island several months ago. I’ve had few opportunities with red-tails since all the snow piled up around here. Hopefully that will soon change… Ron
One more Barn Owl post and then I’ll give them a rest for a while. Lately I’ve spent a lot of time watching these birds hunt and I’ve become intrigued by the process and their adaptations for doing so. Hunting over deep snow presents unique challenges because their prey (typically voles) spends most of their time in tunnels under the surface, so the owls are often hunting by sound alone. According to Birds of North America Online (out of Cornell) Barn Owls hunt prey by sound more effectively than any other animal ever tested (I’m unsure if this statement takes into account the use of sonar by cetaceans and ultrasonic sounds by bats but BNA seldom gets things like this wrong). 1/3200, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in They fly low and slow over the surface while watching and listening but with this much snow they usually locate the voles only by sound. Notice that they can tuck their legs up into their ventral feathers so far that only the feet are visible. It’s amazing that they can do so because… 1/3200, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in as you can see in this “butt shot” those legs are incredibly long. This is an adaptation for grasping prey through deep vegetation or snow. Their claws (nails) are unusually long and sharp and the middle nail has a pectinate inner edge, most likely an adaptation for grasping prey…
