Birds: Raptors

This image was taken by my husband, Steve!

Photographed near our bird feeders

This nest is in a perfect place for picture taking! Located near a pullout across the highway along the Applegate Reservoir and situated at the trailhead to "Bigfoot Trap," we spotted a guy with an enormous camera on a tripod, hanging out and taking images. We were on our way to our hike along the Middle Fork of the Applegate River but at the end of the day we made sure to save enough battery and image space to stop and take pictures of this magnificent creature. My husband had 17 pictures left and a blinking empty battery, and my battery had just enough juice to take a dozen pictures with the hopes that at least one would turn out. I got lucky: 2 were very nice, with others not bad! YAYYYY!!!!

This nest is in a perfect place for picture taking! Located near a pullout across the highway along the Applegate Reservoir and situated at the trailhead to "Bigfoot Trap," we spotted a guy with an enormous camera on a tripod, hanging out and taking images. We were on our way to our hike along the Middle Fork of the Applegate River but at the end of the day we made sure to save enough battery and image space to stop and take pictures of this magnificent creature. My husband had 17 pictures left and a blinking empty battery, and my battery had just enough juice to take a dozen pictures with the hopes that at least one would turn out. I got lucky: 2 were very nice, with others not bad! YAYYYY!!!!

Looked out the kitchen window yesterday and found this stunning hawk sitting comfortably on top of one of our bird feeders. The focus is a little soft, but at least I got the image before it flew away, low across our meadow.

I looked out the window today and found this gorgeous hawk sitting on one of our feeders. We get to see hawks sitting on our bird feeders fairly often, but usually we don't have time to get pictures. This lovely bird, who I expect we've photographed before, stayed there for many moments and allowed me the time to take many images with the hopes that just one would come out! Happily, I got a few winners and this is my pick! :) It never fails to amuse me that these gorgeous predators seem to think a finch or junco will just fly over to get some seeds while such a menace is lording over the feeders! Within a minute of its departure, a bold junco alighted upon a feeder and began munching away, giving an understoond all-clear signal when it wasn't gobbled by a predator on the wing! I have 3 pictures in my upload today, I hope you will see them all! :) Thanks to all of you who have visited and have left comments and favorites! I try to go to all of your pages within a day or two and is a highlight for me to see your beautiful photography! :) This image was taken on Friday, December 30, 2011.