Readers’ wildlife photos

December 1, 2014 • 6:02 am

Thanks to the many people who sent me photos this weekend to refill the tank. Today we’ll have a batch sent by reader Stephen Barnard of Idaho, who has a backlog of great pictures:

Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis): [JAC: I hope I’m not mixing this up with the red-tailed hawk shown below]

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The first Trumpeter Swans (Cygnus buccinator) I’ve seen this season. They winter here.

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Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss):

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Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus) female:

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Desi and Lucy, my resident Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), soaring and circling high above the fields, seemingly just for the joy of it.

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Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) in a light snow storm.

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A great horned owl (Bubo virginianus). Stephen adds:

I’ve seen some great shots of owls in flight, but haven’t managed to get one. An unnerving thing about them is that unlike hawks and eagles and other large birds, when they fly — even very close by — they make no noise at all. I once had a huge Great Gray Owl fly not four feet over my head while I was cross country skiing and the only thing that warned me of its presence was its shadow. Its a marvelous adaptation.

Great horned owl Nov. 24

 

Here is an explanation of the adaptation that enables owls to fly silently.

31 thoughts on “Readers’ wildlife photos”

  2. Stephen, your pictures are simply stunning. The red tailed hawk and the duck photos in particular are like wildlife paintings — seemingly too perfectly composed to be real.

  3. Stephen’s pictures are the best advert for Idaho I’ve ever seen.

    Admittedly I’ve never seen any other adverts for Idaho, but even if I had I’m sure the point would still stand.

  4. Lovely photos but I particular like the owl because it looks so non-plussed.

    I had, what I think was an owl, fly suddenly out of the woods toward my mom’s car about a month ago as we were driving. It came right toward us above the windshield. I suspect it was disturbed from resting in the tall trees right next to the road.

    1. Depends on what you mean by ‘non-plussed’. If you mean a little bewildered, then I’d go along with that. But owlie does not seem ‘unperturbed’ to me, which is the common misinterpretation of the word ‘non-plussed’. :]

      1. “non-plussed” is an acceptable use for unimpressed, especially in North American English (which is what I speak).

        This from wiktionary:

        In recent North American English nonplussed has acquired the alternative meaning of “unimpressed”.In 1999, this was considered a neologism, ostensibly from “not plussed”, although “plussed” by itself is not a recognized English word. The “unimpressed” meaning is not considered standard usage by at least one authoritative source.

        Also, as the website’s Official Animal Anthropomorpizer™, I veto your interpretation of the owl’s face. 🙂

        1. Yeah, I understand what you mean about the actual expression on the owl’s face – s/he does look unimpressed, I would agree.

          But I’m still a little unimpressed and a little bewildered (non-plussed?)by the usage of the word ‘non-plussed’ in this case, as it’s incorrect to us purists. 🙂
          http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nonplussed

          It seems to have devolved into the realm of the usage of the term “I could care less”.

          3. It’s strange for a word to have two meanings that are essentially opposites.

            The owl can reliably be found on that perch in the morning, where it appears to be trying to get some sleep. I’ve taken several pretty good photos of it, but I like this one best. It’s not spooky at all, and I don’t know whether that’s because it’s become used to me or because it’s confident in its camouflage, which is pretty good. Great horned owls in general seem to be less spooky than hawks.

          5. Many owls rely on crypsis in the daytime; it is their resting period, and if noticed they can be severely harassed by crows, jays, and other birds. Not to mention dinner for some hawks! Thus they’ll put up with quite a lot of human gawking before moving.

            Great shot(s)!

          6. Once while kayaking with my dad in a park, we heard a bunch of jays. We looked and they were harassing a poor owl who probably just wanted to sleep. Then more jays came, then crows showed up, then more crows! I imagined the owl thinking, just wait until tonight when YOU are trying to sleep!

          7. Before reading the comments to this post, I had never seen the word “non-plussed” used in any other sense than “temporarily bewildered”. Learn something every day…

          9. But of course, as there is no opposite of “non-plussed” as I use it, there is also no opposite of “disgruntled”. We don’t have “gruntled” employees.

            There is no one true meaning in a living language, only dead ones like Ancient Greek and Latin. I was happy that Steven Pinker agreed to this when I saw him in Toronto about a month ago and he said that people tend to slam neologisms as a way to bad mouth their competition (their contemporaries). I thought that was an accurate take on it.

  7. The trumpeter swans likely tell a story. We see two mature adults and two juveniles, so this is likely a family group, and the ‘kids’ are out on their first big migration with mom and dad.

  8. There were about six or seven swans. I cropped some out.

    I’ve noticed something I find interesting about the swans and geese. As large birds, it’s quite an effort for them to take off, so they have a strategy to avoid predation. During the day they roost in open fields where they have a long distance view and plenty of warning of an approaching predator. At least one bird stays vigilant while the others rest. This doesn’t work at night, so they spend the dark hours in the water. Mallards can take off like rockets and they don’t roost in fields.

  9. These pictures are superb. The information on the on the leading and trailing edges of an owl’s wings was complete news to me. The wondrous thing is that while most effective at higher angles, do not effect lift! I would have thought there would be a buffet. This is amazing.

  11. Terrific batch of photos here.
    I especially love the misty, ethereal quality of the Mallard shot. And the owl with the thatched shadows of branches and superb cross-lighting is perfect.

    Do trout surface to gulp air like carp? Just wondering because the last trout photo you sent had it going for a midge. This one has its mouth open as if feeding, but there is nothing there. (I assumed you wouldn’t crop out an insect if it was in front of the trout.)

    1. Trout do not gulp air. That one just consumed an insect.

      I bought a circular polarizing drop-in filter for my 500mm lens just for this type of shot but I haven’t been able to use it yet, and probably won’t until spring.

      While I’m on the topic of photo gear, I also recently acquired a Whimberley gimbal tripod head, which is the ultimate head for wildlife photography — far superior to a ball or pan/tilt head. Most of my photos are hand-held, but there are situations where a tripod is useful.

      1. Thanks for the trout info.

        Let us know when you use the polarized filter…would love to see it in action.
        Congrats on the gimbal head- it will give you much more flexibility on the tripod. Have you ever used a monopod? Easy to set up in a hurry and get steady w/o the hassle of 3 legs. Gimbal head with a monopod might be a sweet set-up for wildlife photography.

        1. I have a monopod and use it occasionally. It doesn’t have the freedom of movement I like for birds in flight.

  13. Your Lucy and Desi correspond nicely to our Ozzie and Harriet. Two eggs in the nest, so we’re all atwitter.

  14. I also read about the owl’s silent flight in a nice little book about owls, The Owl Papers by Jonathan Evan Maslow.

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