Birds – Page 6

Mixed Feelings

I have photographed owls here with a variety of focal lengths over the past year, in December I lugged out my biggest telephoto for a close view. As the sun sank behind a mountain, my favorite moment as usual was when the last bit of soft light fell on the sleepy hunter. It was so lovely and peaceful but I had mixed feelings as locals have created two paths that look like they lead directly beneath the boulders. In a Phoenix park there’s a successful nest in a saguaro right next to an official trail, so perhaps these owls will also tolerate the human intrusion, just wish they didn’t have to.

📷: Sony A6700 | Canon 500mm | Canon 1.4X
🗓️: December 27, 2023

Sprawling Arms

A phainopepla and a house finch take refuge in the sprawling arms of an old ocotillo, which also nestle a young-ish saguaro as its older aunts and uncles look on from afar.

📷: Sony A6600 | Sony 100-400mm | Sony 1.4X
🗓️: October 26, 2023

Savannah Stretches

These pictures remind me of spring as I so loved sitting beside a lush meadow and listening to the savannah sparrows sing. They were taken in the fall though, the green backdrop courtesy of the wonderland that is the Pacific Northwest.

📷: Sony A6500 | Canon 500mm | Canon 1.4X
🗓️: October 1, 2017

I Always Feel Like Somebody’s Watching Me

A canyon towhee keeping an eye out for scallywags, ne’er-do-wells, trouble-makers.

📷: Sony A6600 | Sony 100-400mm | Sony 1.4X
🗓️: May 28, 2023

I’ll Take the Rain

Raindrops accumulate on the head of a red-winged blackbird on a damp day in the Pacific Northwest. Brings back a lot of memories of finding a favorite spot on the auto tour at Ridgefield, rolling down the windows, and reveling in the rain. I didn’t know it at the time but this was my penultimate visit before we left Oregon.

📷: Sony A6500 | Canon 500mm | Canon 1.4X
🗓️: October 1, 2017

Sidelight

Two of my favorite things, a phainopepla and an ocotillo, side lit by the rising sun. Ocotillos have been a revelation since we moved to the desert though I struggle with how to capture that love in pictures. The past couple of nights I’ve sat out in the dark watching the meteor showers, positioning myself behind one of our ocotillos so that in the darkness its inky fingers reached out to Orion as shooting stars flew past.

📷: Sony A6700 | Sony 100-400mm | Sony 1.4X
🗓️: December 13, 2023

The Night Owls

Two night owls, one on each side of the camera. One of us has excellent vision, one of us doesn’t get dizzy when standing on a high ledge, both think mushrooms and green beans are disgusting. My favorite image from a set right as a mountain started to block the setting sun.

📷: Sony A6700 | Sony 100-400mm | Sony 1.4X
🗓️: November 21, 2023

Lovers in a Dangerous Time

A pair of mourning doves on a crucifixion thorn, one of the most common desert birds and unlike the white-winged dove, year-round residents.

Who Can It Be Knocking At My Door?

As arctic conditions grip the desert with overnight lows in the 40’s and 50’s, a throwback to a cold New Year’s Day in 2011 when I was watching a bittern work a frozen channel on the auto tour at Ridgefield. Unfortunately for the vole living its best life in the tall grasses, a bittern neither knocks nor cares if you answer. In some ways they remind me of roadrunners here in the desert, both relentless hunters with diverse palettes relying on surprise, the bitterns via stealth, roadrunners via speed.

📷: Canon 7D | Canon 100-400mm
🗓️: January 1, 2011

Surprise Test

Though I see them frequently in the neighborhood I rarely see roadrunners in the local preserve and have never photographed one there. So of course as I took a quick hike to test out a camera so newly arrived I hadn’t yet set it up to my liking, the first animal I see is a roadrunner posing on a boulder. So lovely to see, as their name implies while they can fly they prefer to walk, and can really scoot when they want to.

📷: Sony A6700 | Sony 100-400mm | Sony 1.4X
🗓️: November 21, 2023