{"id":92629,"date":"2020-12-19T05:34:43","date_gmt":"2020-12-19T12:34:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=92629"},"modified":"2020-12-19T07:28:11","modified_gmt":"2020-12-19T14:28:11","slug":"some-recent-avian-potpourri-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/19\/some-recent-avian-potpourri-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Recent Avian Potpourri"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eight photos of six species, all taken within the last three weeks.<\/p>\n

None of them are award winners but I think each has something to offer and collectively they document how raptors tend to become the primary focus of my photography during the winter months. That’s not a conscious effort on my part but rather a result of the realities of the species and locations available to me during the shortest, coldest days of the year.<\/p>\n

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An immature Red-tailed Hawk trying to establish its balance again after turning on its perch. I like the pose and especially the setting.<\/p>\n

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An adult Bald Eagle in an unexpected fly by. It’s only a grab shot and the eagle wasn’t close enough for me to get good detail but it’s among the better Bald Eagle flight shots I’ve managed to get so far this season. Hopefully my track record with the species will improve if we ever get any significant snow around here.<\/p>\n

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An adult female Northern Harrier hunting low and slow at Farmington Bay WMA. Thankfully harrier numbers seem to have picked up in much of northern Utah after several years of noticeably depressed numbers of birds. I attribute that to a corresponding increase in the notoriously cyclic populations of voles, although I have only anecdotal evidence to back up my observation.<\/p>\n

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An adult male Common Goldeneye, aka “Happy Duck”, seeming to enjoy surfing the swells on the choppy water on a windy day. In the bright afternoon light the black and white bird was a difficult exposure so there isn’t much detail in some of the whites but they aren’t blown out.<\/p>\n

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An immature light morph Ferruginous Hawk soon after takeoff. Normally I wouldn’t post a bird taking off at this angle away from me but I appreciate the look at most of the dorsal plumage in good light and we can at least see the eye. Besides, in recent years photos of Ferruginous Hawks have been at a premium for me. I’m definitely not seeing as many as I used to.<\/p>\n

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A male American Kestrel atop a man-made and decidedly smelly perch, an outhouse vent. For generations it was thought that most birds don’t have much of sense of smell but in recent years that fallacy is slowly being laid to rest. For his sake I can only hope this guy has impaired olfactory powers.<\/p>\n

Thankfully this outhouse vent is designed to keep birds and other wildlife from entering the vent stack. Until fairly recently most outhouse stacks were open vertical pipes to the outside that cavity nesting birds like owls and many others mistook for natural tree cavities. When they entered the stack they couldn’t get out and fell to the toilet vault below. You can imagine the stinky, often deadly results.<\/p>\n

But now, thanks to programs like “The Poo-poo Project<\/a><\/span><\/span>“, the outhouse stacks of many if not most public restrooms have had screens of various designs installed to keep birds and other wildlife out.<\/p>\n