Posts in Category: hawk
Florida! Cruickshank Osprey
Osprey: Helen and Alan Cruickshank Sanctuary, Rockledge, Florida, USA, January 2024 — Scrub Jays are not the only birds at the Cruickshank Sanctuary. There has been a nesting pair of Osprey there for at least the past five years. I saw them on my last pre-covid visit in 2019, and I saw one of them again this year. While watching this year a local man came up and in conversation he assured me they had been there every year in the interval. Good to know. OM System OM-1 with 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Photomator and assembled in FrameMagic.
Maine! Red-tailed in flight
Red-tailed Hawk: York County, Maine, USA, March 2024 — You just never know what is in store when you go out with your camera. On a grey, overcast day, between rain storms, I decided to take a short hike along one of my favorite paths down through the marshes along our local river near the coast, and walked right up under this Red-tailed Hawk hunting the edge of the marsh. It was an unusually high tide and the rising water was moving a lot of moles, voles, and mice. The hawk was so intent about its business that it paid little attention to me, and I got to watch it as moved from perch to perch along the forest edge and took sorties out over the marsh. OM System OM-1Mkii with 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator and Apple Photos.
Maine! Red-tail
Red-tailed Hawk: York County, Maine, USA, March 2024 — Out for a walk around the neighborhood between rain showers the other day, I saw this hawk come into a tall pine above a marshy area between two streets. It was a long way off still but it stayed until I worked my way closer…not close enough…this is a heavy crop from a shot at 800mm equivalent…but close enough to admire the subtle colors of the plumage in the diffuse light, and to catch it calling. OM System OM-1Mkii with 100-400IS zoom. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Florida! Red-shouldered at the moss
Red-shouldered Hawk: Orlando Wetlands Park, Christmas Florida, USA, January 2024 — There were quite a few Red-shouldered Hawks working Orlando Wetlands Park when I visited during the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival last month. This one came in close and got itself out on the more precarious spindly branches of the tree, apparently in search of the moss, or something in the moss. I suspect it was attempting to gather nesting materials, as a google search turned up the fact that Red-shouldered Hawks are known to line their nests with moss. The light was subdued, but it was fun to watch as the hawk struggled to maintain its balance while busy with the moss. OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Uganda Edition: Immature Bateleur
Bateleur: Lake Mburo National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — We looked through 3 National Parks and along the roads between them for an adult Bateleur, which is among the most beautiful of Hawk-Eagles, and though we saw several immatures, we never did see an adult. This immature was along the road on our way to the boat trip on Lake Mburo on our first afternoon there. Note the round, owl-like face and the short tail. Without the bold colors of the adult, the shape is identifying characteristic of the bird. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/800th.
Double-toothed Kite
Double-toothed Kite: Playa Blanco, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica, December 2022 — It is, according to the field guides and eBird, rare to see a Double-toothed Kite perched…and I would guess even rarer to see one perched in amongst a flock of noisy Scarlet Macaws, but this bird was perched on the lower branches of the same tree the Macaws were in…bold a brass! The guides also say it can be “quite tame” when perched and it certainly was. It allowed us to move around under it and take as many photos as we wanted. I have included a deep crop of the head to show off the double-tooth, which again, according to the field guides, is “rarely seen.” It is pretty clear in this shot. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 640, 400, and 500 in the shade dappled light @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Roadside Hawk
Roadside Hawk: Rincon, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica, December 2022 — On our way back from the Rincon River Bridge and our search for the Yellow-billed Cotinga, still before breakfast, we came up on this hawk sitting on the wires by the road. It is, of course, a Roadside Hawk…the most common hawk of the lowland tropical Americas…with a range from the US border (it is occasionally seen in extreme South Texas) to Northern Argentina and Uruguay. Costa Rica has two of the 12 recognized subspecies. This is the one that inhabits southwest Costa Rica and the adjacent Panama. Seeing this bird, so close and so cooperative, only a yards from the windows of our tourist van, we had a brief discussion of what it might be called if there were no roads…or what it might have been called when there were no roads. It is certainly a hawk of the openings and edges, and is, therefore, closely associated with roads, which are often the first openings in any forest where man travels or lives. I said they were all thinking backwards…roads are called roads because that is where you see the Roadside Hawks from. 🙂 (Okay, I know, but remember it was still before breakfast.) Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. (These photos were actually taken across the width of the van through an open window, so we were indeed pretty close.) Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th.
Uganda Edition: Augur Buzzard
Augur Buzzard: In the foothills somewhere between Ishasha Sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — We drove from Ishasha to Bwindi on the dirt tracks…barely dignified enough to be called roads, though they see a lot of heavy truck traffic headed south and west (or north and east), and stopped in a section of forest to bird for a few miles. Just before we got there, we passed this Augur Buzzard sitting in a tree beside the road as though waiting for us to pass. The Augur Buzzard looks and acts a lot like our Red-tailed Hawk…has a red tail (easier to see in flight as it is short), and at least two color morphs as well. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 160 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Grey-headed Kite
Grey-headed Kite: I spotted this bird sitting above the road as we traveled from Danta Corcovado Lodge on the Osa Peninsula to the Wilson Botanical Gardens in the southern foothills in Costa Rica today. I called it a White-hawk, but after we backed up far enough to see it properly, Mario (our guide) recognized it as a Grey-headed Kite. Though it has a wide range in the foothills and lowlands of both slopes in Costa Rica, it is listed as “uncommon”…so we were privileged to have spotted it. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f5.6 and 4.5 @ 1/1000th.
African Hawk-Eagle
African Hawk-Eagle: Bigodi Community Birding Project, Bigodi, Uganda, August 2022 — We saw this bird in a distant perch on our way out of the Bigodi Community Birding walk. We worked our way slowly closer (but never very close), but there was still active debate among our three local guides as to what it was. The consensus eventually was African Hawk-Eagle. It is actually an Accipitor, like our Cooper’s Hawk, but larger, and (now that I know that) it definitely has that Accipitor look. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4.5 and 6.3 @ 1/1000th.