Working Inside with Ceilings at 200 feet!

A wild life camera. Nothing unusual there. What is unusual is that it is in a cemetery

Sunshine rules in  my book, and over time, days when the clouds roll in tend to really give me a good case of the downers. I don't get depressed, but I do get down with weather like we have have the past several days. In short, I discovered today that it isn't so much the clouds as it is the level of the ceilings. Today, the National Weather Servcie's web site, indicated on an hourly basis that the clouds were hanging at 400 feet, 200 feet, 400-300 feet most of the day. It really wasn't raining much, the total rain fall has been reported at less than .07 of an inch or less several hourly reports showed. With a total of less and .22 of an inch total since yesterday, that is measuring drizzle and with low clouds.  That is a downer of a sprinkle kind that I just as soon see move on out tomorrow and welcome the cold front in it's place. That should clear things out nicely.


With that kind of misery from weather, it gave me a change to look back over the past two weeks of images in more detail and find all the unusual things. And I did find one. A very interesting one at that. In fact, I debated whether to post it or not for several reasons. Yet,  it's got editorial value and those are the ones that hold the most interest for editors and brokers of editorial stock images the most. And... open my mouth and insert foot again... the hawks have positioned themselves in better locations where details highlight their beauty even more after I post that this blog isn't turning into a bird blog. I should have know that Murphy's law would come back to haunt my words on that topic.

Beautiful Red Shoulder on a Wire. This is the second time I have seen him on the wire in the past 4 weeks. Usually, he likes trees over the roadway. (Click on the image to enlarge)

It's Nesting Time Again.

There is a pair of Red Shoulder Hawks that I have followed for the past five years. Even on the days where I don't go specifically to the lake, I will drive by the area from the upper road to see if I can see them surfing the thermals. Today, was one of those times when all the bells and whistles went off as I drove by a road sign and saw the female sitting on the top of the sign.

 Quickly, I made the block and came back around  from another angle. To my surprise, there she sat in the same place on the sign top. Putting the window down on the passenger side before I came to a full stop, her attention was on me but her focus was on the ground below the sign. I had a clear shot of that area. Even without checking settings, I fired off three quick shots for reference. Then, in a flash, she takes off from the sign and glides over the grass area between the shoulder and the incline were I was parked. Into the grass she landed. For a quick bit, I had begun to wonder if she had been injured. She stood up  with a field mouse in her beak. I had gotten the shots of her in a final moment of a hunt that was successful. The next thirty-eight minutes was just amazing as she flew off over the road into a thicket of trees. I decided that I could not miss this action and gave in driving around to the entry of the park about a mile or two away.

Parking the car, I got out and slowly walked into the thicket watching for shadows on the ground and any movement in the trees. Nothing. It was at that point that I wanted to get a fix on the location of the sign where I had seen her first and  where she had flown this way. Walking quietly and slowly through the thicket, I came up on the road from the opposite side from where I had been in the car. Walking down the roadway on the shoulder with traffic whizzing by has plenty of room to walk and not be in an unsafe spot. My intentions were to walk around the thicket and come back to my car  that I had parked in one of the lots. For some reason, I stopped to photograph the sign from across the road when there was movement in the corner of my eye.

Looking up, there was the most amazing hawk in just the right spot doing just the right thing. Perched on a branch in clear site, she sat there while I got off plenty of  images. The sun was back lighting her right side (anatomically correct) so I risk moving and upsetting her, but she continued to sit there watching me. I do talk to wildlife. She got the, pretty bird routine. I moved back and forth several times covering and recovering 20 or so yards. She continued to just sit there on her perch. Then, I hear the screech of her mate from overhead. I looked up to see him appearing to be ridding the thermals, but in reality, he was busy defending his territory as I found out later when the aerial battle began.

There was a Red-Tail Hawk along with the Red Shoulder. Both were attacking a pair of big crows with sticks in their mouths in mid air. It appeared that the crows were starting to build a nest in the hawks territories and they both joined in the fight to defend the range. I have a blur shot of one crow in flight with the stick as nesting material and at least one of the hawks. I'm still learning how to switch back and forth from pre-set settings and those images are more blur. I am always amazed that I can shoot jets coming in from 130 to 170 MPH and not blur an image but something about real birds gets me excited and I blur the images. I'm still working on the problem. But, to me, at this point, the experience is captured in clean shots and the blur shots all the same. That tells a story, too!

It was a good day and I came home.

The Field Mouse Is No More

The Female Red Shoulder Hawk that just  finished  the mouse.

The Male Red Shoulder had to defend his own territory from the crow after the Red Tail drove the crow into the Red Shoulders Territory. Boundaries are Boundaries!