Month: June 2016

Look What Just Flew By

Although the cloudy weather and low light made photography challenging, I managed to get a few shots at Big Beef Creek that I liked. The closer the birds flew the better the shots seemed to be, perhaps because of the haze.

So, most of the shots in this post are close-ups, like this one of an immature Bald Eagle about to catch the first fish of the day.

ClwsDwn

He returned even closer while flying to a branch behind us to enjoy a quick repast.

JvnilWFsh

Although most of the shots I got that day were of immature Bald Eagles, I still tend to favor the shots of Mature Bald Eagles, like this one.

16BldEgl

Even though I spend most of my time at Big Beef Creek focusing on the Eagles, my favorite shots of the day often turn out to be shots of Great Blue Herons, like this one.

FlyAcrs

There is a reason I have a hard-drive full of Heron shots, after all.

Back to Big Beef Creek

I knew when I went to Colorado that I would miss the beginning of the Sculpin runs at Big Beef Creek with their heron and eagle gatherings, but I also know it’s impossible to see everything you want to see during Spring migration. Try as I might, I can’t manage to be at Bottle Beach, Malheur, Big Bear River, and Big Beef Creek all at the same time even though there are great pictures to be taken at all of them at precisely the same time.

I started thinking about Big Beef Creek as soon as I got back from Colorado, but it was nearly impossible to find the right high tide and sunshine on the same day. As it turned out, despite the forecast for sunshine, it was cloudy when I finally managed to get to Big Beef Creek.

Not only that, I managed to get there nearly two hours before I needed to. Unfortunately, that is not unusual for me because I have a habit of always being early.

Luckily, I wasn’t the only one anticipating the Sculpin run. We were greeted by this Bald Eagle as we drove up.

EgleOnPol

This Bald Eagle flew back and forth between the telephone pole and trees across the road for an hour before other birds began to show up.

Needless to say, I got too many shots of it.

Antcpation

Luckily, there were a lot of other birds around, too, like this Crow

CrowWlk

and this gull.

BeefGull

I even had time to visit with two professional photographers from Spokane before the herons and eagles arrived. They gave me a number of helpful hints on using my new Canon EOS 7D Mark II. I’m always learning new ideas from talking to other bird photographers at places like this, but I was more than ready when the first Great Blue Herons began to arrive.

HeronFlyngIn

Once the herons arrive, you can count on the Sculpin and Eagles showing up right afterwards.

And the Ones that Got Away

It’s great to see all kinds of birds you seldom see, but what often brings me back to a place is not seeing birds I’d hoped to see. I’ve probably seen enough Avocets, White-Faced Ibis, and Black-Necked Stilts, not to mention Western Grebes and Yellow-Headed Blackbirds, to keep me satisfied until next year, but there were lots of birds I’d hoped to see that I didn’t see nearly enough of.

For instance, this is the only shot I got of Eared Grebes in one of the few places I normally see them.

MsdEardGrb

I didn’t even realize they were Eared Grebes until I put them up on the computer screen.

I managed just one shot of another favorite, the male Ruddy Duck,

Rudy&Mate

and it was so far out that I had to crop two-thirds of the picture to get this. Needless to say, I didn’t bother to keep the digital negative after I printed this.

This is may be one of the best shots I’ve ever gotten of a Redhead Duck,

BRRdHddDk

but it’s the only one I saw, and it was a long ways off. I would have loved to have gotten some better shots.

I did see several Night Herons, but they were extremely skittish and flew off before I could manage a decent shot. This immature Night Heron

YngNitHrn

was the only decent shot I got.

I can usually count on seeing large flocks of pelicans at Bear River, but we only saw a few of them close up on this trip.

BRPlcn]

Of course, the pictures you CAN’T see are the ones I really wanted to get. I would have loved to seen baby Avocets, baby Black-Necked Stilts, or even baby White-faced Ibis, but apparently I was there too early.

I may just have to return for another visit in the near future now that I’ve almost gotten through all the shots from our latest visit.

Yellow-Headed Blackbirds

If you’re a birder and I haven’t already convinced you that Bear River Migratory Refuge is a must-visit, I’m probably never going to convince you, but I can’t resist sharing a few more of the shots I got there on my last visit.

Although there seemed to be more Western/Clark’s Grebes than any other bird, there seemed to be a considerable number of Yellow-Headed Blackbirds, another bird we don’t have in the Pacific Northwest.

They have a very defined habitat, but on this visit they seemed to be

YlwHd1

everywhere I looked,

YlwHd2

but even when I didn’t see one, I couldn’t miss their “song.”

YlwHd3

The song itself may be irritating, but it’s impossible to deny their enthusiastic rendition of it.

YlwHd4