Spring!

The signs of spring are unmistakable! Yes, the temperature is climbing and the snow has melted but more than that, the wildlife is making the statement loud and clear. I saw my first bluebird four days ago and now it seems like there is one on every fence post. The cottontails are digging holes everywhere and carrying in lots of straw and llama wool at every chance. But the biggest indicators are the ravens. They hang around all winter and occasionally raid a rock dove nest but this time of year is when they truly spring into action (pun intended!) They suddenly become very intolerant of all other creatures - especially the golden eagles that they ignored all winter long - and they are working non-stop on their annual nest in the rocks behind our house. They are very aware of my presence even when I try my best to remain incognito so I will leave the nest alone now until the chicks are hatched and then set up a blind to try and get some shots without disturbing them. 

 In the photo, above, I didn't even realize the one bird was in the nest until I began photographing the second one as he landed and then saw the one low in the back hand up a stick to be re-placed elsewhere. I can just imagine the conversation about furniture placement in the nursery!

 I captured the second photo this morning as the raven dive bombed the Golden Eagle who was sitting quietly minding his business and waiting for a bunny to pass by. As always, the eagle pretended he didn't care that he was being buzzed by a screeching black demon.

Just a few minutes after the raven went after the eagle, I heard him making a ruckus on the other side of the canyon. When I looked through my lens, I saw him confronting a coyote who didn't seem too happy with the interruption.

Spring has definitely arrived!

Gone Fishing

 Changing direction just a little bit to show off a couple of the many, many birds of southern Africa. Today I am featuring the African Fish Eagle - closest relative to our American Bald Eagle - and three of the ten varieties of kingfisher in the area.  In total we saw five different kingfishers but I was not able to capture the other two.

 The African Fish Eagle is actually a little prettier than our bald eagle with his reddish brown plumage. The top photo was taken in Sabi Sands and the bottom shot was in Botswana's Okavango Delta. In the second shot this bird landed in the middle of a rookery full of storks, egrets, herons and ibis. The uproar was amazing but the eagle did not go after any of the baby birds before flying away.

This was one of the most beautiful kingfishers we saw - the Brown Hooded Kingfisher.

 The three shots above are all of Africa's biggest species of these birds: the Giant Kingfisher. At 44 cm these birds are more than double the size of all the other kingfishers. We were lucky enough to come across a pond that had a number of the birds fishing successfully, including the mother/offspring pair seen in the middle shot.

The last member of the kingfisher family pictured is the pied kingfisher. This one was sitting in the papyrus plants as we went by in our boat.

Fall Getaway

This summer has been busy beyond believe with many obligations taking us to lots of different places. This past week we decided to get away again, just for fun, by heading into Yellowstone for a few days of beautiful fall weather. On the way out our drive we came across mama golden eagle sitting on a rock with her youngster just off in the distance. The sun was hitting her in a way that truly showed off her golden crown, making it obvious why the species is named as it is.

 Our first day was spent just outside the northeast entrance of Yellowstone near Cooke City. We have enjoyed quite a bit of time in the mountains to the north in the winter but really have never penetrated that exact area in the warmer months. We rented an ATV to get us back the 10 miles of jeep track to the Forest wilderness line and then hiked into Goose Lake from there. The photo above was taken after we left the ATV and were hiking toward the lake. The large mountain sticking up in the background is Wolf Mountain.

 In the photo above I was standing in the middle of Goose Creek shooting back to the west.

 The next morning we got up early and headed into the park under overcast skies.

The fog was hanging in the valleys as we crossed the Lamar River and began climbing to get a panoramic view of Lamar Valley once the sun broke through.

The small dots in the foreground in the image below are bison.

 This rough-legged hawk chased a red-tailed hawk out of the tree before landing. He then sat quietly while I snapped a half dozen shots of him.

 The third day we moved on to Mammoth for a hike up Sepulcher Mountain. It is one of our favorite hikes in the Park at a distance of 13 miles and 4000' vertical. We didn't see a soul the whole time although the Park still seems to be full of visitors on the roads. The elk are just beginning to move down into the Mammoth area but we saw lots of bulls with their harems up high, like this one near the top of Sepulcher, above.

 When we popped over the top of the last ridge we found ourselves eye-to-eye with a herd of mountain goats. I actually missed most of the shots because I was too close with my 100mm - 400mm lens! This fellow was the last one over the edge and he stopped to take a look back at us - to make sure we weren't following, perhaps.

Then, a minute after they had disappeared out of sight, this little head, below, peeked back over the ledge for one last look.

 On our way back to Mammoth we spotted a dark creature moving through the grass toward us. We immediately stopped and so did he. We started up again, trying our best to move away from the black bear but he followed right along, paralleling our tracks. We stopped again and he stood on his hind legs to get a better view of us. Finally he came down lower and crossed the path some distance in front of us before heading up the other side and out of sight.

Animal Cruelty?

 I know it is dangerous to anthropomorphize, but it was almost impossible to watch this scenario play out and not make comparisons to a gang of humans playing the"knockout game" with an unsuspecting victim. I saw this drama take place on Lake McConaughy on our way home from Nebraska.

WARNING: There are some people who will have extreme empathy with the snow goose in this post. I recommend you go no further.

 I noticed the large gathering of bald eagles when we pulled up to the lookout point. On our first trip through most of the baldies were spread out over the lake so I knew that something unusual was taking place. It was a long way off but I was able to follow what was happening through my 400mm lens.

The eagles were taking turns flying in and "punching" the snow goose as they landed. After they took their turn they would often get up and fly away, leading me to believe they were making a sport of the exercise rather than looking for a meal.

After each hit the goose would hang his head and then gradually come back to standing until the next eagle dealt him a blow.

 Over the course of the ten minutes or so I watched I saw at least 20 eagles rotate through the site. The one constant individual in all this was the immature eagle you see directly in front of the snow goose. Maybe the bigger birds were conducting a training session for the youngster on how to capture a goose meal.

I was astonished to see the snow goose get up and fly away after taking multiple hits over 10-15 minutes. But as you can see in this last photo, the immature and an adult eagle were in hot pursuit.

It is probably a good thing that my card registered full at that moment as the ending was not a happy one for the poor goose.