Posts in Category: falcon
Maine! Merlin
Merlin: York County Maine, USA, September 2024 — Not a great photo (too far and against the light) but a great bird, for me at least. I am not totally positive I have seen a Merlin in Maine before, and this is only one of a very few I have ever seen. It came winging into the top of a tree well out in the marsh while I was turning to go back to the trike and sat long enough for a burst of photos, before it swooped out across the marsh to amuse itself with a flock of Greater Yellowlegs…putting them all up in the air and then chasing them. In the process it got too close to a Kingfisher perched on a tall pole (a dead sapling stripped of all its branches) way out by the river, and was itself set upon. The Kingfisher was just defending territory, but I looked up the Merlin’s diet and Greater Yellowlegs, while certainly at the larger end of the scale for Merlin prey, is definitely on the list. Bold bird! The Yellowlegs is at least equal in size to the Merlin. And all this from what amounts to a meat-eating parrot. Sony a6700 with the Tamron 50-400 Di iii VC zoom at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my bird and wildlife modifications. Heavily cropped, upscaled, and processed in Photomator.
Costa Rica! Laughing Falcon
Laughing Falcon: Cinchona, Costa Rica, December 2023 — Just down the road, maybe 10-15 minutes from the Soda, you enter the territory of at least one pair of Laughing Falcons. It is amazing how often the sharp-eyed bus drivers find at least one of the resident falcons as we drive by on the road. Sometimes there is room to stop for a quick photo, often through the window glass of the bus. Once we even managed to get the bus off the road far enough to get out. This past trip we stopped for a few moments on a dangerous curve…as long as the driver’s nerve held. These small snake-eating falcons are more typical of the lowlands, so this pair is nesting near the top of their elevation range. There must be a good quantity of snakes in the deforested area below the road…part of the landslide scar of the earthquake that destroyed much of Cinchona in the 90s. Though they look and act somewhat like hawks, Falcons are more closely related to the parrots…basically meat-eating parrots with less bright colors. We have been seeing and photographing these Laughing Falcons for at least the past 10 years, the same birds or succeeding generations. This is certainly my closest encounter to date. 🙂 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 and Photo Quality.