Bulletin 216 - Best of 10 years - #1 raptors

I can hardly believe that this is my 10th year doing bird photography. I have had almost 850,000 hits on my photos and almost 80,000 on the blog.

So in recognition of this milestone there are several special people that I would like to thank. First is Susan Billetdeaux, the web master at Houston Audubon. She encouraged me at the beginning to get photos decent enough to qualify for their web site and later suggested I start the blog. The other are 2 couples, the Alexanders and the Amunys. I met them during spring migration in 2008 at LaFitte's Cove and they asked me to send them some of the photos. Thus was born these bulletins. So from a group of 2 people on the list, I now have more than 250 who receive these by email.

Also, I would like to recognize the wonderful guides I have used over the years who have helped me find the birds to photograph. All of them are highly recommended.  I will provide a link to their web site or email.

California - Rick Fournier

Arizona - Tucson - Melody Kehl
               Patagonia - Matt Brown

Texas - Darrell Vollert

Florida - Sarasota - Rick Greenspun
               Miami - Paul Bithorn - email

Minnesota - Duluth - Sparky Stensaas

Michigan - Upper Peninsula - Skye Haas - email

Ontario - Geoff Carpentier

Panama - Gonzalo Horna

Dominican Republic - Kate Wallace 
                                  Ivan Mota

So I am going to select about a dozen photos in each group, that are my favorites. What makes a favorite photo for me? Well there are a number of things.

1. Rarity of the bird
2. A special bird in my yard
3. Difficulty in finding the bird
4. Action shots or several birds interacting
5. The few photos that the lighting is just right, background is perfect and in my mind approach a 'work of art', if I may be so presumptuous.

I will start with the raptors, the hawks and falcons. These birds look majestic and powerful and a photo might project that.

Here is a Bald Eagle, the national bird of the USA. Just sitting still, he looks majestic.

Bald Eagle - adult

For sheer strength and power, no bird matches the awesome Peregrine Falcon, the fastest animal in the world. This Peregrine, on a ledge in Florida, is just waiting to take off on a hunt. Her breast feathers are blowing in the wind and she is staring off in the distance.

Peregrine Falcon

Cooper's Hawks hunt down birds in flight in a chase and are nimble flyers. This juvenile chased a bird, but it got away by diving into some low shrubs. He landed on my driveway. I glanced out and saw him and grabbed the camera and took the photo out the kitchen window. Is there anything more menacing looking than this bird?

Cooper's Hawk - juvenile

This Gray Hawk just happened to fan his tail while I was taking his photo.

Gray Hawk

This beautiful White-tailed Kite was in perfect morning light in Galveston. I stopped the car and he let me take his portrait. This is one of the 'almost artistic' photos. It would have been ideal if he was on a branch rather than a wire, but he wouldn't move when I asked him.

White-tailed Kite

The Merlin is a small falcon and rather plain streaky brown. This bird was wintering at Anahuac NWR and I had seen him several times. I wanted to get a photo in perfect light, so went at daybreak and he cooperated by sitting on a curved branch, adding to the artistry of the photo.

Merlin

On the trip to Panama, we were driving down a mountain road and this Broad-winged Hawk was sitting on a branch, perhaps 30 feet from the car. This is another 'ideal' photo with the bird at eye level and looking slightly forward. The background is uncluttered and blurred out. The pink on the left must have been a tree in bloom as there was nothing around.

Broad-winged Hawk

Because of their large size, it is rare to get a raptor and flowers in the same photo. They usually perch on poles, large trees etc, so when I got this photo of a Harris's Hawk in the Rio Grande Valley, it was unique for me. It was a very windy afternoon and he was perched on top of a yucca flower with another bloom beside him.

Harris's Hawk

In the summer of 2011, we had a severe drought in Houston and all sorts of birds were using the bird bath. I have photos of a Pileated Woodpecker in the bird bath as well as a couple of Red-shouldered Hawks, an adult and a juvenile. In addition, I was feeding the hawks live crayfish, so they were always waiting in the trees in the yard for 'dinner time' when I got home from work. However, I got photos of the hawk pair only twice, once in bird bath, and this time they were side by side in a tree when I arrived home from work. I ran into the house and grabbed my camera. I call this one, 'Learning to Dance'. The juvie is looking over at the parent and they both have a foot raised. It looks like he is trying to follow her foot routine.

Red-shouldered Hawks
Learning to Dance

Another pair of birds is this couple of Northern Caracaras at Anahuac NWR. Anahuac NWR was publishing a book for the 50th anniversary of the refuge. Photos could be submitted up until Dec 31, 2013. On Dec 29th, I saw this pair of birds far away on the ground, but too far far a photo. As I was leaving the refuge, I saw them together at the top of a bare tree. I took some photos from a distance as soon as I saw them, as not to scare them and gradually moved a little closer. Finally, I was probably about 25 yards away and I took quite a few. When I saw this one, with them looking in opposite directions and both in focus, I was pretty sure it would make the book. Sure enough, it made a full page photo, which was quite an honor.

Northern Caracaras

The last 3 are action photos. The first is unusual in that I got 2 things happening simultaneously. A good photo is a flight shot of raptor carrying some prey. Probably the most common one for photographers is an Osprey carrying a fish. As they have to fly back to shore with their catch of the day and perch to eat it. I have photographed this several times. A much less common occurrence is to get a raptor defecating. I have occasionally seen them do this and usually it is while perched. Well on Jan 2, 2012, I was in Galveston and saw this Osprey flying onshore with a large fish. I started filming him and, darn if he didn't let fly, as I was taking his photos. I doubt I will ever get another like it. This is the reason I always wear a hat when I am birding. LOL

Osprey

In this photo, an adult Bald Eagle flew up from the ground carrying some prey. A subadult all brown eagle followed him and was chasing him. I got several photos as he was chasing the adult and managed this one just at the instant he came up underneath and grabbed onto the prey. It was pure luck to get the right instant as the photos on either side of this one about 1/8 second apart have the birds 4-6 feet apart.

Bald Eagles

This last photos has a gray male Northern Harrier attacking a female Harrier. I was at Brazoria NWR. I watched a male Northern Harrier fly across a field and I filmed him as he flew. He veered upwards into the direct sun, so I stopped taking photos of him. About a minute later, a brown female Northern Harrier flew across on exactly the same path. As I followed her with my camera, I caught a glimpse of the male diving down at her. She saw him and swerved upwards to meet the challenge.  In this photo of their closest approach, their talons are extended and are just a foot or so apart.

Northern Harriers dueling

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2015 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask to subscribe.

Bulletin 203 - Panama #11 - Raptors and Owl

I was disappointed at how few numbers of raptors that we saw on the 1 week Panama trip. We saw several different species, but usually only 1 or 2 individuals. Several of the really cool looking ones that I had seen on previous tropical trips were not seen at all.

We photographed 3 species of the falcon and caracara family. The smallest (9") was our familiar American Kestrel (Falco sparverius). This species is IDed by the 2 vertical black lines on the head. This is a male as he has gray wings. This is my best photo ever of this species, so I always take their photo even if I have already some good ones.


American Kestrel - male

The Northern Caracara (Caracara cheriway) is a large (23") raptor. It occurs throughout Central America as well as the southern USA (FL, AZ, TX). There was an old turtle shell on the ground that got his attention. I don't think there was much nutrition in it. LOL

Northern Caracara - juvenile

The last was the Yellow-headed Caracara (Milvago chimachima). It is smaller at 17" and is IDed by the beige head and breast with brown wings and back.

Yellow-headed Caracara - adult

Some of our hawks are migrants through Central America. We saw a couple of these. On the last day as we were driving down a mountain road, this juvenile Broad-winged Hawk (Buteo platypterus) was on a bare branch at eye level not 25 feet from us. We rolled down the windows of the vehicle and took photos.

Broad-winged Hawk - juvenile

The last hawk we photographed was the beautiful Savanna Hawk (Buteogallus meridionalis). This 22" hawk is cinnamon colored.

Savanna Hawk

We did not see any new vultures, but we did see this downy baby Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus) who fell out of the nest. He was on the ground and being protected and presumably fed by the parents.

Black Vulture - downy young

I love owls. I have only seen a single owl in my 4 previous trips to the tropics. Nocturnal birds are so difficult to find. So when the guide told us he was taking us to a house where owls roosted, it was the highlight of the trip. The Spectacled Owl (Pulsatrix perspicillata) at 19" is the largest owl in Panama. The pair were sitting in the open several feet apart on a branch. Here is the male.

Spectacled Owl - male

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2014 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask to subscribe.

Bulletin 168 - South Padre Island area

There was an exceptionl find of a rare bird on South Padre Island in January. This was a Flammulated Owl (Megascops flammeus). This small (6.75") migratory owl is likely the most difficult owl in North America for birders to find and see. One was located in a clump of bushes and trees at the South Padre Island Convention Center.

Lisa and I flew down for a weekend to try and see and photograph this bird that would be a lifer for both of us.

We did see the bird, but unfortunately, he kept himself very well hidden in the middle of the thicket and was almost totally obscurred by leaves.

Occasionally you could see the outline of the bird and perhaps 1/2 the body.  He is identified by the gray color with reddish streaks on his face and body. I did catch some red streaking a couple of times, so I know this was the bird. Also, there were dozens of other birders there, as this was only the second winter record for Texas of this species.

So here is the best of my photos which shows about 1/2 the bird. If you look at the blue sky in the middle, the gray feathers of the bird can be seen immediately to the left of the blue and below.

Flammulated Owl - South Padre Island

While we were waiting and hoping for the Flammulted Owl to come out of hiding, a female Western Tanager (Piranga ludoviciana) foraged in the thicket as well. This bird is yellow with 2 white wing bars. It was my first photo of a female. It was quite an unexpected find as this species normally winters in Central America.

Western Tanager - female

There is a very nice nature and birding center adjacent to the SP convention center. Lisa and I saw an American Bittern right under the boardwalk and too close to photograph. We watched it skulk through the reeds for at least 15 minutes. It was another lifer for her and so close too!

Here is a cute Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) in the marsh at the nature center. It is in the winter plumage and has lost the ring around his bill.

Pied-billed Grebe - winter

Redheads (Aythya americana) are colorful ducks with the male exhibiting a very rounded red head. The similar Canvasback has a reddish brown head and a very sloped forehead . 90% of the North American population of Redheads winter in the Laguna Madre, the bay between South Padre Island and the mainland. Thus, large rafts of these birds can be seen in this area. Here were a few at the nature center on SPI.

Redheads

Northern Caracaras (Caracara cheriway) are distinctive raptors tha belong to the falcon family. Even though I have photgraphed them numerous times, their coloration, bare facial skin, and huge beak always make them an ideal subject.

The adult has a black head and body, with orange face and yellow feet.

Northern Caracara - adult

He allowed me to approach in my car, right beside him, for an extreme close-up portrait. Notice the fluffy neck feathers and shaggy crest.

Northern Caracara - adult

A while later I found this juvenile. He has a pink face, brown body and gray legs. Sibley shows the first year juvenile with a black head. I guess this might be a very young bird, as the head is obviously brown.

Northern Caracara - juvenile

 There was a butterfly enjoying some flowers while we were looking for the Flammulated Owl, so I had to photograph it as well. It superficially looked like a Monarch, but I knew the wing shape wasn't quite right. Here it is on a flower.



Queen - male

And here it is with his wings spread out.

Queen - male

I looked in my butterfly book and it is a Queen (Danaus gilippus). This is the same genus as the Monarch. Notice there are no black veins in the top of the wings above. Also, the 2 black dots in the hind wing seen in the second photo identify it as a male!

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2013 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask to subscribe.

LaFitte's Cove Bird Report 11-6-11

Another overcast warm day on Galveston Island. On the way to LaFitte's Cove, there was a family of 3 Northern Caracaras. I was able to get a photo of the juvenile. They are brown backed and have gray legs.

Northern Caracara - juvenile

There were more migrants today than yesterday. A pair of Warbling Vireos were seen as well as 3 Indigo Buntings. The only species of warbler was FOS Yellow-rumped.

Indigo Bunting

The local Brown Thrasher is in the open more and allows good looks and some photos. This is normally a species that stays hidden in deep brush.

Brown Thrasher

A couple more winter species were found for the first time today beside the YR Warbler mentioned above. There were 2 House Wrens found as well as a single Cedar Waxwing in a flock of 3 robins?

Cedar Waxwing

I didn't see any new waterfowl or shorebirds in the ponds today but did see this unusual Teal that I think may be a hybrid Blue-winged x Green-winged. If anyone has any thoughts on it parentage or is it just a late molter. However, it seems to have blue feather above and behind the eye.