Just a few of my favorites.

Just for the heck of it, (while I am cleaning up the hard drive I re-discovered some lost shots), I thought I'd post a few of my favorite pictures from the past year.

Acorn Woodpecker eating a spider!

 

Western Kingbird

 

Rough Legged Hawk showing his britches!

 

Juvenile Ba;d Eagle "enjoying" a meal.. YUCK!

 

Even Coots can be beautiful birds!

 

Oh, this one is going to hurt!

 

Prepare to meet your maker fly!

 

Yellow Rumped Warbler 

 

Marsh Wren

 

Our little hummer after a fierce battle

 

Black Capped Chickodee

 

Red Crossbill during a plumage change!

Momma's bringing home the bacon, so to speak!

Yeah right, back off little lady!

Never underestimate the little guy!

Rough Legged Red Tail Hawk

Every week I drive I-5, between Eugene and Albany.  I have gotten to expect to see certain Hawks, in certain places.  As a child of habit, birding and rock hounding, I tend to notice that which is out the ordinary.  On a recent weekend raptor hunt, I came upon this fellow on Mt. Tom rd. near the intersection with Coleman road.  I usually see a smaller, less mature bird there.  One not so colorful, and actually kind of wimpy looking.  This one was larger than the usual bird and standing on the ground near the road, made him a terrific photo opp.  I snapped on a couple shots before he took to the air to get away from me.  As you can see in the images, the bird has a beautifully colored tail.  He is nicely colored overall and is a fairly good sized Red Tail.  When I got a good look at the pictures at home however, I saw the shot of it's fuzzy legs.  His feet appear smaller than normal and wow what a nice pair of britches he's got on!  I know it's a Red Tail, the fourth image shows the true story, I just got a kick out of the resemblance in image two of a Rough Legged Hawk.  the last shot in this group is the usual resident hawk, it is normally in the trees along the  frontage portion of Mt. Tom road.  The images are not the best I have ever shot as far as focus, but I liked them so here they are.

 

 

 

 

Defectives

In my business, the replacement parts business, we have a term for those parts for vehicles which come to us with slight imperfections.  We call these parts, "Defectives".  Now, if I were to call someone with some sort of physical flaw a "Defective", I would be a real heel, politically incorrect at the least.  But today, for humors sake, I am going to refer to some Gulls I found while eating lunch at Winchester Bay "Defectives".  These guy were amazing to watch, out of 32 Gulls I had swarming my van while I ate my sack lunch, six were graced with only one leg!

I believe these were all Western Gulls that were pestering me for a handout, and I am really curious about the reasons for their lack of the correct number of appendages.  At first I thought they were all victims of some traumatic event.  Then the more I looked, the closer I looked, I began to think it was a combination of accident and possibly birth defects.  Two of the gulls, had absolutely no right leg at all.  Not even a stub or break in the feathers to indicate a leg had ever been there!  Two had severely deformed right legs, and two had right legs that were missing all or most of the leg below the tibiotarsas.  The latter two, I believe are from injury, it's the prior four that I believe to be some sort of defective.

Here are several photos of these birds for you to judge for yourself.  And by the way, if you know a reason for this, like "Winchester Bay is a repository for screwed up birds" let me know.  I asked a couple of the "natives" and they know nothing of why they may be this way.  Oh and don't feel too sorry for these guys, they were they amazing

 

 

 

 

Sorry for the quality of  these photos.  These birds were very aggressive and tried to fly into my vehicle several times trying to get at my lunch.  As such, I shot through the windows, because, well, I saw "The Birds" and I ain't gonna go for the  Tippy Hedron  treatment!

David and Goliath

I just had to post these images of a meeting that King David would have been proud of!  While birding on Sunday, the 26th, 2009, we were treated to one hell of show.  One that not only a true raptorista could appreciate, but one that anyone who was ever bullied by the big guy at school would enjoy.  A brave little Kestral came to the defense of his homeland against a Red Tail, that had to be twenty times his size, not to mention the strength difference!  The images are not the clearest, definitely not portrait quality they are just for fun!  They do show this little guy busting the hump of a much bigger adversary.  The first image just shows how far I was away and how good Olympus lenses are!  I hope you enjoy these, I laugh every time I see them!

Baskett Slough 9/26/09

Tracey and I traveled o Monmouth to visit our daughter Saturday.  We enjoyed a great lunch with Niclole and her dorm mate Tiffany at the "Pink House Cafe" in Independence.  After blowing our wad on school books, we decided a trip to Baskett Slough NWR was in order.  Pretty slim pickens there, we got to see the Great Egret that always seems to be there, what a camera hog this one is!  He could care less if you are there.  Beside him, there was a mixed flock of approximately 40 Short and Long Nosed Dowtchers feeding and chattering in the shallows of the mud flats.  other than that, just the usual plethora of lesser gold finches and thirty or so crows feeding in the fields.

Ankney NWR, 9/20/09

Not a lot happening yet at Ankney, as soon as the rains come and the marshes fill with life giving water that will change.  If you are not familiar with it here is a quick link to the Ankeny web page.  On this day, Eagle marsh was completely dry, the only birding we encountered was at Pintail Marsh,  We counted 47 Canada Geese (Duskys),  one Red Shouldered Hawk (RSH) and two great Egrets.  Not much to brag about but I did manage to snap a couple shot of the RSH.

Splish, Splash!

Here is a series of images, showing the Swainson's Hawk, near Enterprise Oregon.  He just seems to love the water.  I say that because even though the sky is blue, it was not a particularly warm day.