Malheur Raptors

Since I spent a not-so-small fortune on a new camera that was supposed to be superior to my old camera for photographing birds in flight, I tried to focus on that during our visit to Malheur. I also discovered that since the new camera is a full-frame camera, unlike my previous birding camera, that the pictures had to be cropped much more severely than I’m used to doing.

This female Northern Harrier was

quite aways away but I thought the shot was worth saving if for no other reason than that it was my first shot of a bird in flight with this camera.

This male Northern Harrier

was also a long ways away, but the light was better and I was really happy with how sharp it came out.

I didn’t recognize this Osprey

when it flew over because it was in the shadows and the white breast looked dark and because I really didn’t expect to see an Osprey in the middle of the desert. I was really happy that I could lighten the breast while producing very little noise.

My favorite shot, though, was this one of a Swainson’s Hawk.

I’ve only seen one or two Swainson’s Hawks in all my years of birding, but, more importantly, it’s the kind of shot I’ve been unable to capture in the past.