Cool Nature Photos

[buckeyefarmer]

I'm heading to Conowingo Dam on Monday & Tuesday to shoot the bald eagles (photographically). I hope to have some nice shots to post up next week.

My sister was there a few weeks ago looking.

Friend of mine got a good picture of one near his house yesterday.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Cool shot. I thought hawks ate various rodents, not other birds.

Looked out the window one morning and saw a little puff of grey feathers floating to the ground. I couldn't see where they were coming from, so I stepped out on the patio...and on the top of the power pole in the back yard, was a hawk. He was plucking the feathers out of a dead dove. I also saw a hawk fly over with a snake in his claws once upon a time; that told me how that dead snake I saw hanging from the power line got up there.

 

[ovrszd]

Looked out the window one morning and saw a little puff of grey feathers floating to the ground. I couldn't see where they were coming from, so I stepped out on the patio...and on the top of the power pole in the back yard, was a hawk. He was plucking the feathers out of a dead dove. I also saw a hawk fly over with a snake in his claws once upon a time; that told me how that dead snake I saw hanging from the power line got up there.

Yeah, I've saw Hawks carrying snakes a lot.

For me, the biggest surprise about birds of prey is in regards to Bald Eagles. We revere them as a great hunter. They are more like a majestic vulture. They will feed on roadkill or any other carcass they can find. Less energy, less risk of injury.

 

[Motorboatin]

This guy was a regular visitor last summer. He would hang out when I was grilling

 

[dalola]

Cool shot. I thought hawks ate various rodents, not other birds.

What's really fun is if you happen to catch one taking a bird out of flight. It takes a minute to figure out what happened, as you see a burst of feathers, and look for the hawk flying off with the bird in it's clutches. Would love to see a hi-res pic of that!

 

[farmeratheart]

What's really fun is if you happen to catch one taking a bird out of flight. It takes a minute to figure out what happened, as you see a burst of feathers, and look for the hawk flying off with the bird in it's clutches. Would love to see a hi-res pic of that!

I have no photos to back up this story. This happened in the early 1970's long before digital photography was available to the masses and years before cell phones of any kind let alone those that great cameras existed.

I was raking hay for my Dad in about a 10 acre field. I had 2 red tailed hawks circling high above me. There were rabbits in the alfalfa that I was raking and as I raked the mowed swaths into windrows occasionally a rabbit would dart out and run up the row before hiding again. I was near the center of the field when the last rabbit who had been chased out several times and kept moving towards the center made a break for the edge of the field. One of those hawks swooped down and picked up that rabbit like he weighed no more than a feather. As he climbed in altitude the other hawk who was still circling high up dove at the first hawk causing #1 to drop the rabbit. Before the rabbit hit the ground #2 caught it and sped off towards the woods near the edge of the field at nearly ground level. This whole spectacle only lasted a few seconds and I confess that I was so amazed by what I had seen that I probably would not have gotten a photo even if the technology had existed!

 

[ArlyA]

Here is a albino gray squirrel that visits our bird feeders. We've seen him/her in our neighborhood for quite a few years.

 

[deserteagle71]

I have no photos to back up this story. This happened in the early 1970's long before digital photography was available to the masses and years before cell phones of any kind let alone those that great cameras existed.

I was raking hay for my Dad in about a 10 acre field. I had 2 red tailed hawks circling high above me. There were rabbits in the alfalfa that I was raking and as I raked the mowed swaths into windrows occasionally a rabbit would dart out and run up the row before hiding again. I was near the center of the field when the last rabbit who had been chased out several times and kept moving towards the center made a break for the edge of the field. One of those hawks swooped down and picked up that rabbit like he weighed no more than a feather. As he climbed in altitude the other hawk who was still circling high up dove at the first hawk causing #1 to drop the rabbit. Before the rabbit hit the ground #2 caught it and sped off towards the woods near the edge of the field at nearly ground level. This whole spectacle only lasted a few seconds and I confess that I was so amazed by what I had seen that I probably would not have gotten a photo even if the technology had existed!

Watched the same type of situation in the mountains of central Nevada some years ago - only it happened to a Golden Eagle. I was sitting up high on a ridge overlooking a deep canyon. There was an eagle circling and floating on the currents rising up from the canyon; suddenly he dove down into the canyon and disappeared from my view. But a minute later I saw him flying back up, working his wings hard because he had a good-sized rabbit in his claws. I quickly grabbed my binoculars and focused and was able to see the rabbit was still alive and struggling. Suddenly a smaller bird - probably a falcon of some sort - came into the view of the binoculars and hit the eagle in the back, causing it to drop the rabbit. That smaller bird was unbelievably fast - it snatched that falling rabbit out of mid air and flew away to some nearby rocky cliffs. What I wouldn't give to have a video of that whole episode!

 

[Doofy]

A few shots I took at North Park near Pittsburgh over the weekend.
Click to enlarge.

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Very nice. Oh, what does a Canadian Goose say? "Honk, eh".

 

[cqaigy2]

Very nice photos and i enjoy the stories too.

 

[MossRoad]

Every winter many thousands and thousands of crows gather in South Bend, Indiana. They show up around Halloween, build in numbers until Christmas, then stay all winter until spring, when they break up. Each evening they return to town and each morning they head out to search for food. When they fly out or fly in, you can stand in one spot, and it takes a good hour for all of them to fly past you. Wish I could get a picture of them at night. It would be quite impressive.

 

[deserteagle71]

Kind of a blurry photo...it was a dark morning and I did't take the time to bump up the ISO on the camera. I feed a lot of birds around here; I scatter scratch on the ground for the quail. But when the snow gets deep this time of year I drop the scratch on my covered deck instead. Makes no difference to the quail. In this shot a cottontail has joined the quail for breakfast.

 

[DavidL61]

Back in November the roof of my Camry was covered in frost. I was amazed at the design that was produced.

 

[MossRoad]

very cool :thumbsup:

 

[ovrszd]

Kind of a blurry photo...it was a dark morning and I did't take the time to bump up the ISO on the camera. I feed a lot of birds around here; I scatter scratch on the ground for the quail. But when the snow gets deep this time of year I drop the scratch on my covered deck instead. Makes no difference to the quail. In this shot a cottontail has joined the quail for breakfast.

Our quail look nothing like that!!! Ours are the Bobwhite variety.

 

[oosik]

Hmm - - the quail here don't look like either of the two pictured above. Ours are called California Top Knot quail.

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[deserteagle71]

Back in November the roof of my Camry was covered in frost. I was amazed at the design that was produced.

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You need to see if you can't sell that - much better "art" than most of what I see being sold. Beautiful! Much better than that banana taped to a wall that sold for so much money that the news was making a big deal about a few days ago.

 

[deserteagle71]

Hmm - - the quail here don't look like either of the two pictured above. Ours are called California Top Knot quail.
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Mine are the same - that's just a bad picture so they are hard to see. Here's a closeup shot of one parked on my handrail and watching me in the house.

 

[snymat68]

Bald eagles are definitely opportunistic when it comes to food. They'd rather steal a fish from another eagle than catch one themselves.
Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of action at Conowingo Dam when I went on the 23rd and 24th.
There were maybe a dozen eagles that weren't very active. And when they were active, they were 1/4 to 1/2 mile away, so a lot of the shots I'm posting here are not the best quality, but still fun to look at.
I'm also posting a picture of the dam itself for reference. I was standing mostly on the platform on the shore on the left and most of the action was taking place across the river by the rocks.
For a sense of scale, the dam is almost a mile wide.

Click the images to view larger.

Juvenile Bald Eagle perched on power line tower on island.

Juvenile Bald Eagle

"Wucha got there? A fish? Can I steal it?"

There was no shortage of seagulls.

Juvenile Bald Eagle

Conowingo Dam across the Susquehanna River

Two Juvenile Bald Eagles

Juvenile Bald Eagle swooping in toward another below (out of frame).

Juvenile Bald Eagle causes adult to drop its catch.

Food fight! (Bottom right eagle has a fish in his talons.)

Seagulls gotta eat too! (It was getting pretty dark at this point.)

Adult Bald Eagle

"Buzz off!" (Vulture trying to steal the eagles breakfast.)

Bath Time

A very concerned catfish!

Great Blue Heron at Dusk

He sees you.

Another food fight! (Left eagle has fish.)

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST....

A swing and a miss!

 

[snymat68]

While at Conowingo shooting the eagles, I stayed overnight in Aberdeen, MD. Since it got dark by 5pm, I went looking for somewhere to shoot some long exposure night shots.
I ended up in Havre de Grace, MD at the waterfront on the bay and got some pretty cool shots. While I was there, I scouted some spots to get sunrise shots the next morning.
I'm glad I did, because I think some of these were the best shots of the trip. Out of all of them, the flying mallard is probably my favorite, with the bench coming in second.

Click on images to view larger.

"Light Speed"

"Reflections"

That's a big Christmas Tree!

Havre de Grace Lighthouse

"Beacon of Cheer"

"Framed"

"Reflections 2"

"Sunrise on the Bay"

"Sunrise on the Bay 2"

"Surrounded"

"Front Row Seat"

"Morning Thoughts"

Angry duck teeth!

Red-tailed Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

"Morning Majesty"

A couple of quacks.

Belted Kingfisher


This guy was really close and I got tons of detail in these two shots.
(The full res originals are insane. You can see every strand of every feather.)