Swainson's Hawk, and a couple others

[Detoff]

Here's four from a short trip this morning...

Swainson's Hawk

Brown headed cowbird

And dancing sandhill cranes (the photos aren't that great, but they were fun to watch!)

 

[kundalini]

The hawk looks very grand and gave you a good pose. How unfortunate that the tail is obscured.

The cowbird...wow...what a shot.

The cranes look as if in a mating dance. The first one is pretty cool.

 

[uplander]

The first two are really nice captures. I have an afinity for hawks but it's really refreshing to see nice shots of birds many of us take for granted like the cowbird.

 

[tpe]

Very nice shots all of them, what time of day was it, i cant really see any long morning shadows? Did you know the hawk was likely to be there? and the cranes have a great character to them with their lolloping jumping, is it territory, mates or food that make them do that?

tim

 

[Detoff]

what time of day was it, i cant really see any long morning shadows? Did you know the hawk was likely to be there? is it territory, mates or food that make them do that?

the cowbird was shot about 7:30 am, the hawk & cranes around 8:30 am.
I'd photographed the pair of swainsons awhile back, and knew they would be in the area. This one let me approach quite closely to get these shots.
It's mating season for the cranes so they are "courting" in these shots.

Here's the pair of Swainson's from a week or so ago...