The American Kestrels are nesting in the same tree again! Some photos from tonight…
She doesn’t look very happy to see me!
If anyone was in the vicinity 11th and Tatnall Streets in Wilmington this afternoon between 12:30 and 1:00 they would have heard a lot of Peregrine Falcon screaming! Craig Koppie, an Endangered Species Biologist with US Fish & Wildlife Services banded four juvenile falcons, also know as eyases, this afternoon.
Mama falcon was feeling extra feisty this afternoon and I think Craig is very lucky that he left with only a minor injury! Here she is through the peep hole. If you click on the image you can get a better look at her beak. Not something you want to mess with!
Check out her talons!
The kids crack me up because they pretty much just stand in the same spot once Craig gets them from the nest box.
Check out the feet on this young female!
Mama falcon coming in for a landing.
And here they are, this year’s crop of falcon kids. Speaking of crops, check out the two birds on the right!
Normally the male is also around when Craig bands them but we think he must have been off hunting the whole time because we didn’t see him until he flew in with a snack when we were getting ready to leave.
What a great way to spend a lunch hour!!!
p.s. Thanks to Bill Stewart, next year we will have a webcam for the Wilmington falcons!!! Stay tuned for details!
Here are links to a couple Peregrine Falcon webcams if you’re interested…
http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/falcon/
http://www.aviary.org/cons/falconcam_cl.php
Stopped by Fowler Beach this afternoon on our way home and although the light was bad, the action was really good! Shortly after we arrived we watched a juvenile eagle chasing an Osprey trying to steal his fish. When we saw an adult eagle start to join the action we decided that maybe we would get our cameras out of the car even though the light was bad and they were kind of far away. The wind was so strong that it quickly blew them our way though.
The quality of these pictures is pretty bad but the content is good! 
I was very surprised to see the juvenile eagle fly away with the fish!
Northern Bobwhites are birds that sound like they’re saying their name. They’re also birds that drive you crazy because you can hear them but you can never find them! As I was driving down the road to Bombay Hook yesterday, I did a doubletake when I saw what looked to be a Bobwhite poking it’s head out of some grasses. I slowly backed up my car and after putting my lens out my window and was pleasantly surprised and very happy to actually get some photographs of these elusive birds. I think they have the sweetest little face.
This is a male…
A fluffy male…
And this is a not so great shot of a female…
Yesterday I had the pleasure of fostering a very young Killdeer. Someone found an adult who had been killed and this little guy running around all by himself so he ended up at Tri-State Bird Rescue in Newark, DE. Since Killdeer will readily adopt chicks that aren’t there own (as long as they are approximately the same age as their chicks) we decided to try to find a foster home for him.
Kevin Kalasz, a Wildlife Biologist at DNREC in Smyrna, DE told us that a nest had hatched outside his window earlier in the week. Since my boss was nice enough to give me the day off, I was able to take the little guy to Smyrna and give it a try. Shorly after I arrived Kevin was able to find the family of Killdeer in a muddy field across from his office. I put the chick on the ground not too far from them and within a minute or so, one of the adults had flown up to him and put him under her wing!!! You just gotta love Mother Nature!
These aren’t very good pictures since they were so far away, but you can still see how cute they are!
There’s at least one under her here and another one about to go under.
Before she got up, she had all five of these chicks under her! As you can see by this picture, our chick fit right in! To give you an idea of how small they are, an adult Killdeer is only around 10″ tall. The chicks are just a big cotton ball with very long legs and big feet!
This is an adult Killdeer without any kids underneath.
Thanks again Kevin and also thanks to Derek Stoner from Delaware Nature Society who hooked us up with Kevin!
I went to Cape May with a friend the first weekend of November back in 2005 and we were both pleasantly surprised to find around a dozen Osprey fishing at one of the ponds! I could be wrong but I think they’ve usually headed south by November.
There was a lot of hovering…
Before they would dive…
Osprey look like they’re going to dive head first into the water but just before they reach the water they extend their legs and go in feet first. Or I should say talons first to catch that fish! Maybe one of these days I’ll be able to catch one right at the moment the talons hit the water but so far I only have shots of them coming out of the water.
After they dive they always shake off the water…
The Osprey certainly didn’t seem to mind that we were there. Sometimes they would dive so close that we couldn’t fit them in the picture!
They were catching a lot of fish!
Here are three of them on a tree off in the distance.
This is what happens when you forget to change your exposure! Although I kind of like it.
There was also an American Bittern fishing at the pond. He didn’t seem to be as happy about us being there though!
Every decade or so large numbers of owls will head further south than normal due to a food shortage where they typically spend the winter. During the winter of 2004-2005 there was a Great Gray Owl irruption like we may never see again in our lifetime. HUGE numbers of these owls showed up mostly in Minnesota. Large numbers also showed up in Ontario, Canada which is where I went to see them.
Most raptors catch rodents as they run about out in the open. Great Gray Owls’ large, flat facial disks enhance their hearing and allow them to hear voles as they move around in their tunnels in the snow.* On one of our trips, the snow was almost a foot deep with a thin layer of ice on top. We were amazed every time we saw an owl pounce into this and catch a vole!
Sometimes they would hover over an area before pouncing.
And sometimes they would just sit. This guy was definitely interested in something!
After pouncing, they would spread their wings out guarding their kill and look from side to side. Unfortunately I didn’t get any clear shots.
They swallow voles hole. Again, no clear shots. What the heck kind of photographer am I anyway?!
Can you feel how cold it was?
His feet look like he’s doing a pirouette here!
This Blue Jay kept dive bombing the poor owl.
You wouldn’t think that they’d be able to land on such tiny branches. Believe it or not, they only weigh around 2 lbs!
What a cool bird!
Watching and photographing these owls is an experience I’ll never forget!
You can see more Great Gray Owl shots on my website:
http://www.birdsbykim.com/gallery1.htm
*Check out Kate St. John’s blog for a really cool article/picture of some of these mouse tunnels in her backyard!
http://www.wqed.org/birdblog/2009/01/28/subnivean/
I’ve been going through old files this weekend and came across some Common Loon shots that I’d either forgotten about or never processed. These are from a lake in Hawks, Michigan. One of the highlights of this trip was getting to watch the loons swimming underwater!
In this picture, the two kids are looking to see what mom and dad are doing down there!
Here’s one of the kids starting to go under…
And here he is underwater…
Another highlight of the trip was having loon babies!
They always stayed fairly close together.
Whenever any kind of threat was in the area, like a hawk or other loons, the parents would do a special call and the babies would get down as low as they could.
It’s hard to tell that there are two of them here but if you look closely you can see the eye of the second one.
Not sure why he has his wings up.
Like father…
Like son…
Like mother…
Like daughter…
We frequently got to see the kids being fed.
I love the way the kid is looking at the size of the fish! Are you out of your freakin’ mind???
These guys were kind of big for riding on their parent’s back but they would frequently try. Every now and then they would let them ride for a little while.
Some miscellaneous shots…
I love the different colors you see when the sun hits them just right.
This would be kind of cool if the reflection was better!
This is from another trip to the same lake but unfortunately there were no kids yet. Here’s one of the adults on the nest.
This is a picture of the lake where we photograph the loons.
You can see more of my loon shots on my website at this link:
http://www.birdsbykim.com/gallery4.htm
The past two Sundays I’ve spent the day at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in Kleinfeltersville, PA where Snow Geese, Tundra Swan and Canada Geese stage before they head north to their breeding grounds. There are also a lot of different ducks.
You can check this website for information on how to get there and what the goose and swan numbers are like.
http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/cwp/view.asp?a=487&q=161143
The numbers are starting to drop but you’ll still see a good show if you go to see the Snow Geese in the next week or so!
There’s nothing quite like the sight and sound of 50,000 or more Snow Geese blasting off at the same time!
In this picture you see a Snow Goose and a blue morph Snow Goose.
A Snow Goose coming in for a landing…
Lots of Canada Geese…
Ring-necked Ducks like to hang out in one of the ponds.
In the mornings the Tundra Swans leave the area to go to different farmlands where they spend most of the day eating. I love hearing them as they fly over.
I’ve photographed three banded Tundra Swans so far.
If you ever see a bird with a band or collar, you can report the information at this website: http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/BBL/homepage/call800.htm
You’ll receive a postcard in the mail telling you where and when the bird was banded.
Last Sunday I was on the backside of a hill waiting for Tundra Swan to fly over when I noticed some large wings coming up from the other side of the hill. I don’t know who was more surprised, me or the eagle!
About an hour later, a different eagle appeared!
Last year there was a young Red-tailed Hawk who didn’t seem to mind being photographed!
Here he is with a snack that he caught right in front of me!
Middle Creek WMA is a pretty cool place this time of year although I would recommend going on a Sunday unless you don’t mind listening to all the shooting by the hunters every other day of the week.
Okay, I take it back. Apparently the 40D is capable of taking some pretty sharp pictures as you’ll see in some of these. I think my problems last weekend were from using my 1.4 teleconverter but I’m not sure since that works fine with my Mark II camera.
I was totally blown away that I was able to lock focus on the the first two with the trees in the background and also that they’re so sharp!
There was a lot of action yesterday. Of course it’s almost always with the sun behind them or too far away…
These are some shots from yesterday. There was a young Red-tailed Hawk who didn’t seem to mind me photographing him at all!
And I think this may be my best grey ghost shot yet!
Unfortunately this guy was too far away.
