Yesterday I spent a delightful morning in the west desert. Light was perfect, temps were moderate, there was no wind, birds were beginning to migrate and some of them were even cooperative. (7 photos)
I don’t post as many sparrows as I should, especially the common ones. To make matters worse, yesterday was World Sparrow Day and I made no mention of it. Today’s post is my attempt at redemption. (4 photos)
And believe it or not, this time he brought the fish close to me before gobbling it down instead of carrying it far away like he’s done repeatedly in the past.
American Kestrels are notoriously difficult to approach but bring on the cold and sometimes I think they must have glue on their feet.
To me this (second photo) almost looks like two birds, one on top of the other. In fact there’s very little ‘almost’ about it – that’s what I see. But it’s a single Song Sparrow.
Raptors have several behavioral quirks that bird photographers who lust after takeoff and flight shots should be very familiar with because they signal imminent takeoff. Yesterday morning near Farmington Bay WMA this immature Red-tailed Hawk knew all the choreographed moves and performed most of them on cue.
How many photos of Yellow Warblers on the ground do we see? In my experience very, very few. Instead they nearly always seem to be in trees.
It’s been a while since a kestrel allowed me a close approach so I appreciated the close action as this female enjoyed her furry breakfast on a great perch (photos are not gory).
