American Kestrel - A Lover Not (?) a Fighter

As hot afternoon light gave way to crisp, golden spring late afternoon light I was intrigued to see a lone female Kestrel on a corner fence post. I set up my camera gear to take a nice photo in the late afternoon light - and was surprised by the following event - one that I will most likely never see again; Kestrels mating.

The beautiful princess

The smaller male, with his slate colored wings, surprised both of us when he landed onto of the bigger female.

He fought for his balance with his wings not, if you look closely, with his talons. He does not appear to dig his talons into her upper back in any of the photos.

I am certainly not a bird mating expert so I can only guess if the positioning was correct enough to produce the desired result.

This photo is my favorite - it captures an extraordinary moment I will most likely never see again and yet I am more amazed at the exquisite colors and patterns of the feathers. When I look closely I cannot help but see the American Kestrel as a beautifully drawn flying piece of art.

The rest of the story: When I was on a photo safari in Kenya and Tanzania many years ago I was in a vehicle that pulled up short and stopped in front of a river crossing. To our front, blocking our crossing, where two hyenas locked in the classic mating "doggie style" position. (As a "doggie" type animal I would imagine their options are limited.) I took a whole roll of film - yes, it was that long ago - as my fellow passengers looked on and giggled.  I took the whole roll to get an image similar to the one above - both creatures looking at me while in their mating embrace.  I had seen postcards in local hotels that featured mating animals - as joke postcards - and I knew I had "the" picture for their postcard. Afterward I contacted that postcard company and sold them the image. Years later one of my Air Force Special Operations brethren was in Africa, saw the postcard with my hyena image on it, bought it and returned to the States to surprise me with "my" postcard.  

These two Kestrels did their deed, listened to my story and are apparently as bored as you have been. My story aside, I hope you enjoyed the incredible moment I was lucky enough to witness and even luckier to capture on digital "film."

More images of the fruits of their labor to follow...

An American Kestrel family saga

The American Kestrel is one of my favorite birds; a fighter, a lover, one who hovers, a provider and a fierce competitor - what's not to love. The Kestrel is the smallest hawk and can be compared in size to a Robin, though a little more robust. The are exquisitely colored and have a fantastic "eyes in the back of their heads" feathering.

The story of "our" 2013 Kestrel family cannot be told in a single blog, so I'll space it out over a few. As you read the posts PLEASE keep your fingers crossed that our Kestrel box will be occupied again this summer. We've seen both males and females checking it out, it has fresh wood shavings ready for a new family.

I put up a Kestrel box a few years ago yet it went unoccupied for at least the first couple of years. It is in a prime location, plenty of voles to be had along a hillside that usually has southerly winds to aid the hunters.

In the spring of 2013 we spotted a male Kestrel hunting in the area - he quickly winged his way into a hover then stayed stationary while craning his neck looking for voles. In between sorties he landed on our wooden fence looked at me then gave me a good look at his faux face.

We started to get excited when we saw a pair of Kestrels in the area. The "lady" is on the right of the photo - she is holding a vole in her talon. Note the color and size differences; he has pretty slate blue wings, she is bigger and has pretty patterned wings.

Soon enough she took up residence in the box while he began his "vole delivery" service.

She received her delivery but flew off instead of eating in house

He began a vigorous delivery service

He even added horny toads to the menu

 

The male was very attentive throughout the month of May as the pair of Kestrels readied the box for their young.

More of the Kestrel family saga to follow.

Snow day Birds

Aaah Yes! I remember the beautiful blue Utah sky and warm temperatures. Today is not that day, I am fighting a snow induced funk - cold, white skies with snow blowing sideways.

Thought today would be a chance to reach back to grab two photos that made an impact on me, and hopefully you.

Yesterday I mentioned seeing a bird with a nictating membrane that was fully opaque.

A few summers ago I photographed a pair of Swainson's Hawks - dark morph - over a couple of weeks as they patrolled the hill behind our house. A strong southerly wind provided enough constant lift for them to effortlessly hover while scanning for voles.  Their eyes can detect the ultraviolet wavelength of a vole's urine which leads to the vole.

One of the hawks hovered over our back deck - right above me - and "blinked" as I took the photo.

The resulting opaqueness (only slightly Photoshop enhanced for effect in this cropped photo) combined with out-reaching talons gives this bird a sinister look. It thought better of choosing me for lunch - I was either too heavy to carry away, too hard headed or too old and tough - all of which are true...sadly.

More birds came to the party on the back hill - I was lucky to catch this one after he tucked his wings and dove at high speed to snatch a vole. After years of photographing birds in flight I rarely get them in this posture they are just too fast.

The photo below is a more common posture - cruising in the wind while looking for food. This is the photo I sent to an expert for assistance in identification. I will share my embarrassment with you in order to help you not make the same rookie mistake I made.

These last two pictures are the same bird - white and brown yet it is a red-tailed hawk. The fact that it didn't have a red tail threw me off, though there is a hint of red in the second photo. The expert kindly told me that the red tail hawk is the only bird of prey with a patagial mark (see arrow). Apparently it is is a well know ID mark and can vary in darkness - okay, now we all know how to ID red tail hawks.

Tomorrow I'm breaking out some of my favorite Kestrel photos, including one that Holly took.

The eyes have it - take a close look - who knew

It all started with the Ibis, my Dad and I and were watching one walking in a marsh and I asked if he noticed the color of the eyes. He hadn't noticed the eye color. If he didn't, I can understand if it may have slipped by others too. This post is dedicated to the eyes of the birds we photographed in the Everglades.

 

An Ibis wading along Turner River Road

Zoomed in to reveal the beautiful blue eyes

Little Blue Heron in Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

 

A closer look at the pale yellow eye

 

"Blinking"

The Little Blue Heron was caught "blinking" which is actually a third eyelid - the nictating membrane - which lubricates the eye. I've taken photos of birds of prey where the nictating membrane is fully opaque creating a creepy other-worldly look.

A Great Egret along the road in Fakahatchee State Preserve

The Egret eye catches the light and looks like a marble

This Great Blue Heron was "giving me the eye" in Shark Valley

A closer look reveals the same marble effect

Another Shark Valley resident - a tri-colored heron

 

Zoomed in to highlight the wonderfully colored eye

The jewel of the Everglades -the Purple Gallinule

The PG also has a beautiful red eye to go with its candy corn beak

Lastly, I was reviewing my bird photos, intent on picking out never before posted photos to demonstrate the different bird's eyes when I came across an alligator photo. I opened this image in Photoshop and moved a slider the wrong way - making the photo too light...however it revealed a remarkable find.

An alligator along Turner River Road

Look closely

A closer, albeit an accidentally lighter, look reveals a slit in the eye that reminds me that this alligator is a descendant of the dinosaurs. Doesn't this look like an eye from a dinosaur in "Jurassic Park?" It does to me. The trees and setting sun reflected in the gator's eye are spectacular. The little ball of light in the eye however is not my flash going off - though it looks like a flash. I do not use a flash when taking wildlife photos - the ethics of which are hotly debated on some blogs - not here, I'm not looking for a fight or to push my agenda - so please do not debate it in the comments.

Thank you again for joining me and our treasured birds - each one different and yet similar - like all of us humans.

Tomorrow I'll be snowed in, under a foot of snow, if you believe the local weatherman - either way I plan on starting a series of posts with some good photos taken over the last few months.

Everglades Day Three - Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

Heading into Day Three I was stumped, my Dad and I had exhausted all the best photography locations I had researched and still had a morning of shooting available. I Googled "best boardwalk near Naples" to get a specific location on a boardwalk we had driven past a couple of days earlier. Instead Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary popped up as the go-to spot in the Naples area. From their website:

The story of how Corkscrew Swamp became a sanctuary is one of the important conservation successes of our time. National Audubon began protecting the wading birds nesting within Corkscrew Swamp in 1905. During the 1940's and 50's, cypress forests in Florida were being leveled for their timber. Audubon realized the forest must be saved. At the time, Corkscrew was isolated and almost impossible to access. Today it is an oasis in a made-over landscape. In other areas, many of the wild swamps and much of the teeming wildlife, that were characteristic of this region less than a generation ago, are gone. Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary's value thus becomes more significant with every passing year.

Cypress Knees

A 2.25-mile boardwalk meanders through pine flatwood, wet prairie, around a marsh and finally into the largest old growth Bald Cypress forest in North America. These impressive trees, relatives of the redwood, tower 130 feet into the sky and have a girth of 25 feet. Their massive branches are draped with mosses, lichens, bromeliads and ferns. The forest is also home to hundreds of alligators, otters, white-tailed deer and red-bellied turtles. A wide variety of wading birds, songbirds, raptors and the fabulous Painted Bunting can be seen throughout the year. Photo opportunities are available at every turn of the boardwalk trail.

Early Morning mist hung over the meadow

How could we NOT visit Corkscrew? 

We arrived early in the morning and walked past a group of people in the parking lot who seemed excited. I thought they were just excited to see each other so we walked on past. Turns out they had spotted a rare little bird - lesson learned "pay attention knucklehead!"

Dad and I were the first ones to walk on the board walk that morning - let me be more specific - I was the first. Why do I mention this? My Dad trailed behind me by 10 feet or so therefore I was the first one to walk through all the spider webs that had been spun across the boardwalk overnight. Just imagine me taking a few steps, walking into a nearly invisible strand of spider web then fighting to untangle myself just hoping a spider didn't land on me in the process...while Dad softly chuckled.

My Dad, Andy, a man with a plan

The high water affected Corkscrew too - their birds were nesting later or not at all. I hoped to see their Barred Owls and went directly to the area they had been spotted the day before. The owls nest, lay eggs and when they hatch the owls spend hours getting food for their young. I asked one of the volunteers how these owls can eat when the ground is flooded after I explained that our Barn Owls in Utah eat mice, voles etc. "They eat fish." He went on to explain how the owls will perch on the boardwalk railing, oblivious to people, stare into the water to find their prey then dive down to get fish, crayfish and other aquatic creatures. That blew my mind - an owl who fishes. To any reader who says "of course they do, have you never heard that" I extend my apologies - I had no idea and I would have loved to have seen those Barred Owls fish.

In the same area of the boardwalk we spotted two Anhinga nests. How could we not, they were beehives of activity with a female vocalizing while sitting on the nest and the two males flying from bush to bush to find twigs to build the nest.  
 

The male has his twig and is headed back to the next.

The Anhinga above "looks" stately as he poses with his twig...but that's not the whole story.

The sequence starts as this young Anhinga reached out to snap off a twig. 

He tossed it in the air to rearrange it for his stately pose.

 

Strike pose.

 

 
Then he turned around, accidentally dropped his twig into the water far below and was left staring, crestfallen, as his twig fell out of reach.

I know I am putting human emotions into a bird's actions - but he really did look crestfallen...

We walked along the boardwalk and saw this Little Blue Heron. That's his official name and no I didn't supersaturate him with Photoshop, he really is that beautiful color throughout.

Another Little Blue Heron though not nearly as saturated. BTW both birds had two legs, they just chose to rest one under their feathers while I was taking their portrait.

At one point I looked up and was surprised to see an adult raccoon scuttling toward me on the boardwalk. Raccoons are pretty common but we hadn't seen any mammals in the Everglades (direct result of human introduced snakes) so I was a little taken aback. This one quickly left the boardwalk but the highlight of the day was when we heard from other visitors about the two baby raccoons nearby.

My Dad and I rushed over to see the two baby raccoons and were able to see their sweet little faces.

We spent a few minutes with them but didn't want to push them from their tree so we left after a few good photos. My Dad got a great shot of the two of them together that I hope to share in a future blog post.

Before we left I was lucky to photograph this female cardinal. The males are a brilliant red - the ladies a little more understated. We do not have cardinals in Utah therefore the only time I get to see them is on my trips back east.   

Thank you for joining me and my Dad on the Everglades trip I'll wrap up the trip with a post tomorrow then on to the greatest hits.

.

Everglades National Park - Day Two

 Everglades National Park - Day Two

I'd like to say that my Dad and I were up with the sun - but we were already on the road an hour before the sun rose. We got an early start so we could arrive at the Shark Valley entrance into the Everglades National Park before the crowd built. We got there before the park opened, we parked outside and walked in past the gate (that's allowed, we weren't trespassing).  The first bird to greet us was this Purple Gallinule - the jewel of the Everglades.  I had only seen one of these pictured in a brochure, it was a treat to see one right in front of us in the morning light.

We photographed the purple gallinule for a while then returned to the car and reentered the park. It took a moment to find our subject - he had hidden himself from the early visitors by climbing in to the brush. D.A. Sibley states in his Guide to Birds book that a purple gallinule "usually walks on floating vegetation or climbs through brush rather than swimming." We chuckled as we witnessed that behavior - this bird climbed down his branch and reached out with his beak to snag a lily pad leaf to step onto rather than get his feet wet.

Check out the size of those yellow feet

After entering the park and finding a parking spot we arranged for seats on the first tram to circle the park. The National Park Service facilitates a tram ride that follows a 15 mile path that is shaped like a spread open bobby pin. We started on the rippled side, rounded the curve at the top then followed the straight side back to the beginning of the ride. Along the way we spotted very few birds a result of the high water mentioned in the previous post. We did see plenty of alligators but mostly we rode along and listened to our guide teach us about the Everglades ecosystem. 

My Dad was surprised that the Everglades are not like a jungle - rather a flooded savanna of waist high grasses dotted with tightly bunched groups of trees. The river moves slowly, a quarter of a mile a day, which creates a "water through cheesecloth" effect resulting in clean, clear water with no foul smell. 

An interesting fact that you can verify yourself - when the Corps of Engineers built the tram path they dug pits to mine the limestone. The pits were shaped to spell "L-I-F-E" as seen from the air - or as seen on Google maps - though defining the L and E are not as apparent as the F and I. Type in "Shark Valley tram road" into Google maps, switch to satellite view and zoom in - pretty cool.  

Along the tram road we did see this tri-color heron.

As well as this female Anhinga - she has a light tan neck as opposed to males having a black neck.

We didn't see any small animals - only birds or alligators. This is the undisputed result of human interference in the ecosystem.  Over the past decades people have released their pet snakes - Burmese Pythons mostly - "into the wild."  We all know the thought process - "my pet has outgrown its cage, I'm kind of over having a pet snake - I'll do it a favor and release it into the wild." That action, repeated many times by many people, has resulted in a pandemic of invasive species estimated of tens of thousands to hundred of thousands of snakes with no natural predators. In July of 2015 an 18 foot python was captured in Shark Valley - second largest caught in Florida - EVER. The snakes eat young and old mammals - wiping out 99% !!! of all mammal species in the Everglades. I cannot wrap my head around that news. Imagine going to Yellowstone National Park and only seeing Elk and no other animals -incomprehensible.

We enjoyed our Shark Valley experience and drove to another location famous for its wildlife photography offerings. When we arrived we realized a roadside hedge had grown to 15 feet tall essentially restricting our view to the road. That was a bust!

Dad and I drove back into town for lunch and a strategy session. We had been to most of the locations I knew of and been relatively skunked. Then I remembered driving past Turner River Road - a dirt road with a 20 foot wide creek running along the right side of the road. We came up with the plan - put my Dad in the passenger seat and I would drive him along the road so he could shoot out the window. After one pass we'd turn around, I would retrieve my camera from the back, put him in the seat behind me therefore we'd both be able to shoot out the left side windows.

The plan worked out pretty well, these are my shots from the return trip down the road. The highlight for me was seeing my Dad enjoy his wildlife photography opportunity. He is an outstanding photographer who makes his living taking individual and team pictures mostly of local sports teams. His subjects are almost always static and he has the time to thoroughly (read: slowly) check his camera settings. Wildlife photography is usually the complete opposite therefore my Dad had to exercise photography "muscles" that he doesn't usually employ. He did well and enjoyed being pushed to find the subject, get the camera set properly, frame the subject and shoot before the subject flew off.

He and I were all smiles as we photographed these Moorehens - they are duck like Rails - but the backgrounds were so beautiful that it was challenging and fun to make the most of the opportunity.

 

The wind picked up and began to blow the fine feathers of the Great Egret...
 

Creating a "feathered headdress" of sorts.

 

We had seen the Ibis the night before but this was a better chance to get a good photo, with a reflection.

I'm used to seeing birds preen with their beaks so I chuckled a little when I saw the Ibis scratch himself like a cat.  

Lastly, as we were leaving the Turner River Road we puled up along side this alligator floating by a culvert. We were close enough that I had to rotate my camera to the vertical to get the tip of the nose in the picture. 

Before we retired for the night we sped off to find some trees to silhouette against the setting sun. Since the mosquitoes come out about the same time the sun sets, we got a few shots, slapped at a few mosquitoes and headed back to Naples for dinner and a good night's rest.

 

Day Two was a full day of learning about the Everglades and making the most of our time together. More to come tomorrow, Everglades Day Three - a corkscrew adventure.