steve sutton
New member
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2010
- Messages
- 61
ast trip to the Eastside.
Even on the "dryside" I can't catch a break and get decent light. Makes for pretty landscapes but it sure does mess with long shots and BIF flights
Female Ferruginous on the nest, which is a out of commission windmill tower, and "thankfully" the superstructure didn't fall off with the blades cause without that the adult birds would, I'm confident, make it impossible for anyone to climb the tower and sit on the platform to take pictures of the contents of the nest. Even knowing that they can't hit you without hitting the tower the "F15 in a power dive" wind scream causes involuntary ducking.
This is the female hovering over the nest. Bigger and more robust than the male she's easy to tell from in a dive because you can see the progress of her primary feather molt. Don't know what good that would do me to say, "it was the female that hit me".
First look into the nest. (3) hatchlings so new that they stil have the egg tooth on the bill. The fourth egg is "dead" and was still there on a followup visit four days later.
The male of the pair; trimmer, faster and far more determined in his "defense" of the nest. Sitting on the platform I tried to get good sharp shots of him in a dive. I don't think I could have gotten on him with a gun much less keep a camera in focus on him. He "touched me" on one dive and I was no further away from the windmill superstructure than the thickness of my body. The wind noise from his dives is as chilling as it is awe inspiring.
A tighter shot of the nestlings. Scoobey snacks in the foreground provided by the adults. A wetter than normal spring might just result in all three of the hatchlings fledging since there is an abundance of Ground Squirrels as a result.
Both adults over the nest.
I'm headed back over this weekend hoping to find that all three young ones are still there and well fed. I'm taking a hard hat, a heavy jacket and hoping for a little better light so that I might get some "sharper" shots of the adults.
Steve
Even on the "dryside" I can't catch a break and get decent light. Makes for pretty landscapes but it sure does mess with long shots and BIF flights
Female Ferruginous on the nest, which is a out of commission windmill tower, and "thankfully" the superstructure didn't fall off with the blades cause without that the adult birds would, I'm confident, make it impossible for anyone to climb the tower and sit on the platform to take pictures of the contents of the nest. Even knowing that they can't hit you without hitting the tower the "F15 in a power dive" wind scream causes involuntary ducking.
This is the female hovering over the nest. Bigger and more robust than the male she's easy to tell from in a dive because you can see the progress of her primary feather molt. Don't know what good that would do me to say, "it was the female that hit me".
First look into the nest. (3) hatchlings so new that they stil have the egg tooth on the bill. The fourth egg is "dead" and was still there on a followup visit four days later.
The male of the pair; trimmer, faster and far more determined in his "defense" of the nest. Sitting on the platform I tried to get good sharp shots of him in a dive. I don't think I could have gotten on him with a gun much less keep a camera in focus on him. He "touched me" on one dive and I was no further away from the windmill superstructure than the thickness of my body. The wind noise from his dives is as chilling as it is awe inspiring.
A tighter shot of the nestlings. Scoobey snacks in the foreground provided by the adults. A wetter than normal spring might just result in all three of the hatchlings fledging since there is an abundance of Ground Squirrels as a result.
Both adults over the nest.
I'm headed back over this weekend hoping to find that all three young ones are still there and well fed. I'm taking a hard hat, a heavy jacket and hoping for a little better light so that I might get some "sharper" shots of the adults.
Steve
