A few diurnal raptors from this summer.

Maestro

Well my time birding this summer is coming to a close. I'll be able to do it, but not quite as much since that ole work thing is rearing its ugly head. I gotta pay the bills.

First off, I was so excited that I posted one pic of this series already while I was down in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. It wasn't processed well because I only had my laptop. Anyhow, here are a few more pics of the Crested Caracara, one of my favorite falcons. The sun was blazing this day, but for an impromptu, very quick photo shoot, these are pretty good I think; not National Geographic material but at least the caracara was in a tree giving me a halfway decent perch. I wish some of the leaves weren't there but I really didn't have time to compose the shot.







I was also able to see some Harris's Hawks. They were in and amongst the area surrounding the Laguna Atascosa NWR. I wish the perches were better but all the birds of which I take pictures seem to favor utility lines. :wxwax

Solo


Then it flew off to see its mate on the other side of the street.


While I was in the Laguna Atascosa NWR trying to photograph a yellow-billed cuckoo, the cuckoo, startled by something, bolted. I looked up to see a Harris's Hawk buzzing us. The shot is soft, but I was hand-holding a 500mm so I know that I introduced motion blur into the pic but since this is the only pic of Harris's Hawk doing something I kept it.



When I came back from the Valley, as we call it here in Texas, I was pleased to find some Mississippi Kites spending the summer with us. Guess what? They won't perch on anything but utility lines.

I think this is a female because of the white secondary feathers on the wings. I love the eyes.




These are of one of the juveniles. It was partly cloudy and very glarey. Sorry for the BG being so backlit and bright. I was able to get pretty close to it though. Mom was nearby though or it could have been dad. I'm not sure.







And well, who could forget the ever-present, ever-vigilant and ever-skittish Red Tailed hawks? I really haven't taken pictures of them this summer but I did happen upon this one quite by accident.



Hey, and it wasn't on a dern utility line! :rofl

All in all, caracaras, kites and harris's hawks make for a good raptor summer I think.

Dick on Aruba

Beautiful displayed collection of raptors. Very well done

Thanks for sharing,

Dick.

Netgarden

Nice texas captures! The Crested Caracara was amazing. How hard are they to find down there? What a cool bird to observe even! Thanks for the visit to your area. Or are you visiting there? I did not know the Cacara is in Texas,.

Ric Grupe

Well...NOW I know why the hawk crossed the road!

I wonder what raptors perched on before we provided them.

Nice set, Stephen.

Maestro

Netgarden wrote:

Nice texas captures! The Crested Caracara was amazing. How hard are they to find down there? What a cool bird to observe even! Thanks for the visit to your area. Or are you visiting there? I did not know the Cacara is in Texas,.

They are neat birds. I became interested in them when I saw Harry post some wonderful shots of them from Florida. There are basically just two places to see Caracaras, Florida and Texas. The population in Texas is much stable as I believe the state of Florida has deemed the caracara an endangered bird. Perhaps Harry or someone else could confirm that. If you go to the Lower Rio Grande Valley, you will probably see some. I saw this pair on the northern end of the Valley. The farthest north I have ever seen these is Llano, Texas in the Texas Hill Country, however, according to the Dallas Audubon forums, there are some members in East Texas that have seen them as far north as Corsicana, Texas which is only about an hour southeast of Dallas.

BTW, I'm from Texas. I live south of Dallas.

Maestro

Dick on Aruba wrote:

Beautiful displayed collection of raptors. Very well done

Thanks for sharing,

Dick.

Thanks Dick.

Harryb

Excelllnt set Stephen and the Caracara is endangered in Florida due to its habitat being swallowed up by our out of control development. :cry

Shasoc

Very nice set of nicely framed raptors shots.I particularly like the Caracara series.

dbaker1221

awesome series Stephen!:ivar

Maestro

Harryb wrote:

Excelllnt set Stephen and the Caracara is endangered in Florida due to its habitat being swallowed up by our out of control development. :cry

Thanks Harry. I thought I had read that somewhere about the caracara. It's too bad. I just recently bought CS3 and the new Bridge plus CS3 is making a difference when I reprocess these raptor pics. I should have waited and just posted the reprocessed pics.

LCD

wonderful series! I think 4 and 8 are my faves!

Lisa

ShepsMom

Nice set Stephen!! I aboslutely love Solo shot!

Maestro

ShepsMom wrote:

Nice set Stephen!! I aboslutely love Solo shot!

Thanks Marina. I like the light in that shot. If only the perch were better.

Maestro

LCD wrote:

wonderful series! I think 4 and 8 are my faves!

Lisa

Thanks Lisa. I was quite happy with number 4. That harris's hawk let me get pretty close. Number 8 has some good light. I also had to to clone out a second utility line that ran through the body of the kite. I'm glad the clone job turned out well. Every time I look at it all I see is where I cloned the line out. I am glad that it is not that noticeable.

raptorcaptor

Nice collection of raptors Stephen!

Maestro

raptorcaptor wrote:

Nice collection of raptors Stephen!

Thanks Glenn. I'm really going to try to focus on getting these guys when they are doing something. I saw the kites yesterday feeding on some insects doing swoops, landing, feeding, but of course I didn't have my camera.