{"id":53878,"date":"2017-11-24T06:00:23","date_gmt":"2017-11-24T13:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=53878"},"modified":"2017-11-24T06:00:23","modified_gmt":"2017-11-24T13:00:23","slug":"northern-harriers-fighting-and-hunting-a-photo-contest-i-endorse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/11\/24\/northern-harriers-fighting-and-hunting-a-photo-contest-i-endorse\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Harriers Fighting And Hunting (+ a photo contest I endorse)"},"content":{"rendered":"

And readers know I’m not a fan of\u00a0most photo contests.<\/p>\n

Occasionally I go way back into my archives to see what birds I’ve photographed this time of year in the past as an indicator of where I might mind them now. So last night I fired up an old hard drive and stumbled across a few Northern Harrier shots taken at Farmington WMA years ago that I thought readers might enjoy seeing.<\/p>\n

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1\/3200, f\/8, ISO 400, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS\u00a0 USM + EF 1.4\u00a0Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

Exactly eight years ago today, on 11\/24\/09 when I was still a relative novice at bird photography, I was barely able to document this dramatic encounter between a Northern Harrier perched\u00a0on the ground and an adult male harrier (Gray Ghost) swooping in\u00a0to attack it. The perched bird saw the male approaching and at the very last second it hopped up from the ground and turned completely upside down so it could present its talons defensively.<\/p>\n

I’ve captured similar defensive postures from fighting male Short-eared Owls in the past but this is\u00a0only time I’ve\u00a0been able to do\u00a0so with harriers. I barely got my lens on the birds\u00a0before this shot was taken.<\/p>\n

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1\/4000, f\/8, ISO 400, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS\u00a0 USM + EF 1.4\u00a0Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

In the next frame the\u00a0previously perched bird is still trying to recover from the near-attack and land on its feet after the male veered away at the very last split-second. It was all over in a flash.<\/p>\n

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1\/1000, f\/9, ISO 500, Canon 40D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS\u00a0 USM + EF 1.4\u00a0Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

And during that same journey through the ancient hard drive I found a couple of more interesting and even older (12\/07\/08)\u00a0harrier photos I decided to share. This male was\u00a0hunting very low over the refuge when he turned toward me and gave me\u00a0a menacing look. When harriers hunt low and very slow like this their feet and legs often dangle down dramatically during the process and\u00a0I love this direct eye contact from those intense yellow eyes of the male.<\/p>\n

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1\/1000, f\/9, ISO 500, Canon 40D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS\u00a0 USM + EF 1.4\u00a0Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

2-3 seconds later he was still headed my way as he glared at me through the vegetation. Something like this must be the very last sight countless voles see before they meet their demise. It kind of gives me the shivers.<\/p>\n

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I’ll end on a completely unrelated subject.\u00a0Many readers know that I don’t enter photo contests for a variety of reasons related to cheating, baiting and disingenuous, self-serving\u00a0and sneaky practices by contest organizers but yesterday I was made aware of one that apparently doesn’t fit that mold.<\/p>\n

Yesterday\u00a0afternoon I\u00a0was contacted by Nancy Stocker, a representative of the Audubon Society of Greater Denver and a very nice lady. In part, this is what she said:<\/p>\n