My call for photos elicited a bonanza of lovely pictures, so our tank is temporarily full. Thanks to those who replied!
Let’s start, as is customary, with photos from Stephen Barnard in Idaho. He calls these photos of bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) “Mug shots” (probably for the crime of piscicide). I’m not sure whether these are of Desi (the male of the pair) or Lucy:
Raptors from reader Bruce Fall:
These are juvenile Cooper’s Hawks (Accipiter cooperii), a species you have featured previously. These were taken in July 2013 in my small South Minneapolis backyard. Five youngsters fledged from the nest in a neighbor’s yard, and hung out for weeks in our yard; we rarely saw the parents. The first photo is of three drinking and bathing in the birdbath; the other two were on the ground below.
The second is of two siblings side by side on a crossbar. According to Birds of North America Online, females are 1/3 bigger than males, which is one of the most extreme cases of reverse size dimorphism in hawks. Although I can’t confirm the sex of these birds, presumably the big one on the left is a female and the much smaller one on the right is a male. These are weeks out of the nest and full sized; they aren’t going to get any bigger. Females are roughly the size of crows.
Here are a couple of landscape photos from reader Todd Fife of Kentucky, who likes to photograph arches:
Kentucky is only behind Utah (and maybe Arizona) in the total number of these geologic features. All the arches I have included here are on private property. The one of Hall Hollow is two photos spliced together.
Bear Pen Hollow:
Reelfoot Lake, Dawn:
How far away is Stephen for those mugshots?
I was about 40 meters away. I was using a 700mm lens and the photos are heavily cropped.
I never would have thought of Cooper’s hawks drinking together around a bird bath. It just seems so unraptor-like. 🙂
Lovely eagle portraits, Stephen!
Nice landscapes too!
These are all beautiful. Thanks!
Those are great landscape shots, Todd. You can almost hear the noise in Bear Pen Hollow.
That second eagle shot gives you an idea of a circumstance in which an unfortunate rodent might think, “Oh, shit. Why did that have to be the last face I’ll ever see? Why couldn’t it have been of my beloved mate as I lay curled up in my nice little burrow? Hell, why did I even leave the burrow this morni–”
…except, of course, that there likely wouldn’t be enough time for quite that much thinking, especially at rodent speeds of thought….
b&
Beautiful Kentucky shots!!! Utah’s been my favorite place to hike over the past 10 years or so, but may have to try Kentucky.
Well Merilee, if you like natural arches, Kentucky is a great place to investigate. A major cluster of them are situated in the Red River Gorge (east of Lexington). Sadly though, that place is being loved to death. It has become a climbing destination as well. I would suggest you seek out the Big South Fork, which borders Kentucky/Tennessee. It is a wild place without the crowds. I always tell people in my spiel about it that there are three drainages in a row that empty into the Big South Fork named Troublesome, No Business and Difficulty Creeks. That should tell you about the lay of the land.
Very intense mug shots, well done! I like the bokeh effect of the foreground branches.
As Diana noted, it does seem strange to see raptors at the bird bath. Definitely worth the shot though!
Neat arches and great splice job; I’m used to seeing horizontal landscapes spliced, it’s nice to see the vertical orientation.
Reblogged this on ediekendel.