[images copyright 2007 RaptorPhoto]
Today we drove to Half Moon Bay to photograph a huge concentration of raptors dining on a population explosion of voles. We saw perhaps a dozen white-tailed kites, 4-5 northern harriers [one male], and several red-tails [top picture is one of them] dining on the voles. Additionally there were two great blue herons hunting voles at sunset [bottom picture is one of them, a 1st year].
The herons were interesting. They slowly walked through the grass while waddling their entire bodies snake-like with head poised to strike. They looked like cobras on stilts. I didn't see them catch anything.
The kites hunt by hovering over a vole then periodically lowering themselves down until they are within range. Then they fold in their wings and drop like a rock. I didn't see them catch anything.
The harriers fly acrobatically very low over the ground and periodically ambush voles. They have many other tricks in their arsenal but this is all we saw today. I didn't see them catch anything.
The red-tails just sit on a stump and wait until they see a vole. Then they fly over and eat it. They ate lots of voles.
So I think the red-tails have something good going here. No wonder they're the ubiquitous hawk of North America. Now if somebody would inform the other raptors that they don't need to work that hard maybe we'd see more of them too!
3 comments:
Beautiful shots!
These are just amazing!
Have you looked into getting published? Most states, and many conservation agencies, publish wildlife calendars yearly, and often call for photographs. AZGFD has a pphoto contest yearly, and you could easily win. They have nice and well done photography, on occassion, but bot of yor caliber. Also, I would think starting with a kids wildlife magazine, like NG World, and writing a short article would be an excellent way to fund your passion and expeditions.
I'm sure you are aware of all of this.
Thanks!
We finally have the portfolio that we want to start trying to get published. I'd only really looked into magazines and vireo.org [who rejected me kindly]... that's a good idea, I'll have to look into that.
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