Birds in Flight 2

Back in August we had a blog showing Common Nighthawks in flight.  I intended that to be the beginning of a "Birds in Flight" series, but didn't really follow up.  So here goes...

The San Luis Valley is a wide open valley, with a large population of rodents.  This means that it is a great place for raptors to live and hunt.

The most common hawk is the Swainson's Hawk.  We see lots of these guys perched on power poles and soaring through the skies. While there are light, medium, and dark morphs (plumage versions) of this hawk, we have only seen the common light morphs here.

When it comes to bird-in-flight photography hawks are great. They are large, relatively slow flying, and usually easy to get close to. 

Here is a picture of a perched Swainson's Hawk, followed by a shot just after taking off. Nice talons!!

Here is a soaring Swainson's Hawk, with its distinctive long, pointed wings. Note the dark outline of the wings and the brown "bib".

With so many small rodents in the Valley, we occasionally see a hawk drop to the ground to capture a meal.  One day were watching a pair of hawks, and one dropped to the ground and caught a rodent.  We then witnessed a spirited chase, with the successful hunter being pursued by the second member of the pair.  They flew out of sight so we didn't see how this played out. Perhaps they shared the meal???

Mark