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<\/p>\nI had a different post planned for today but more careful consideration during the middle of the night last night strongly suggested that I might be wise to put that one off for a while. More about that in a later post.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, I had this one partially completed and waiting in the wings. Thanks in large part to #$@!%ing fireworks, I got less than three hours sleep last night so this morning I’m not firing on all cylinders. But I’ll do my best under the circumstances to write text for this post that makes some semblance of sense. Coffee, lots of it, should help.<\/p>\n
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It seems like each year there are a few bird species that I see far fewer of than I have in previous years. This year, one that stands out is Swainson’s Hawks. So a few days ago I reviewed some of my older Swainson’s photos and several of them grabbed my attention because of flight postures that I find unusual and appealing. Following are four of them that I posted to Feathered Photography long ago. It’s been so long they were almost new to me so I suspect many viewers will enjoy seeing them too.<\/p>\n
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A youngster soon after taking off from a Montana fence post. I love getting good ventral views like this, especially when the tail is fully flared. The tradeoff was no eye contact but for a photo like this one I’ll pay that price.<\/p>\n
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This light morph adult had been hunting from atop a utility pole and I was lucky enough to capture ‘him’ just before he landed on it again after an unsuccessful hunting foray. As all bird photographers know, it’s far more difficult to get sharp landing shots than it is to get sharp takeoff shots, so I was delighted to get this one.<\/p>\n
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An intermediate morph soon after takeoff. Intermediate morphs are more colorful than both light morphs and dark morphs, especially ventrally, and I had good morning light on this bird to highlight those ventral colors. Once again, the tradeoff is a bird that is looking away from me.<\/p>\n
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This photo represents one of my favorite Swainson’s Hawk memories, even though it was tinged with sadness. These are two recently fledged siblings. The one on the ground had an injured leg or foot so it couldn’t perch comfortably on the fence posts. As a result, both birds spent most of their time on the ground because as fledglings they preferred to be close to each other.<\/p>\n
This photo was taken just as the uninjured bird was landing on the fence post after being huddled next to its sibling on the ground. ‘He’ landed there because he’d spotted one of his parents flying in with a vole to feed its offspring and this youngster knew, based on previous experience, that he had a better chance of ending up with the vole if he was on the fence post. He was right, he got the vole.<\/p>\n
I spent quite a bit of time with these siblings over several days and the injured bird seemed to get his share of voles too. My biggest concern was, if his foot\/leg didn’t heal, how would he feed himself during his upcoming trip to South America for the winter? He could fly so I couldn’t catch him (I tried) so I don’t know how that turned out.<\/p>\n
Anyway, I’ve included the photo here because I love his landing posture and how well his wing primaries and secondaries are separated from each other.<\/p>\n
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I’ll admit to being jealous of most of my readers who presumably won’t have to endure the fireworks curse again until… New Year’s Eve? In the glorious state of Utah, Pioneer Day on July 24th is celebrated with fireworks at least as enthusiastically as the 4th of July.<\/p>\n
I so don’t look forward to that in less than three weeks.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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It seems like each year there are a few bird species that I see far fewer of than I have in previous years. (4 photos)<\/p>\n