Red-tailed Hawk, Branched Oak State ParkRed-tailed Hawk poised for takeoff. Red-tailed Hawk, Branched Oak State ParkRed-tailed Hawk springs to flight. Red-tailed Hawk, Branched Oak State ParkRed-tailed Hawk is airborne. Red-tailed Hawk, Branched Oak State ParkRed-tailed Hawk's power stroke. Red-tailed Hawk, Branched Oak State ParkRed-tailed Hawk intently glares at target. Spotted this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk hunting at Branched Oak Lake on Nov. 28, 2020. My first attempts were distant, but then it landed atop a pine and I backed into a nearby parking area with the sun to my back. Fortunately the bird showed no car shyness and I was able to reset my camera while shooting out a window. This five-shot sequence covers two seconds, and shows the bird's lift technique from the front. Too often I see only the tail flying away. This is an athlete in motion focused on its target.

 On a warm evening just before 7 p.m. on May 3, 2020, a Cooper's Hawk landed in my backyard birdbath. By its markings and trusting behavior, I knew this was a young bird. I had never seen it there before. Over the next two minutes, it allowed me to slip within 10 yards to capture's its bath in warm light. It twice dipped into the fresh water before hopping on the edge of the bath. There, it turned, raised and flexed its left leg, shook, and in a flash departed. 

1/7/2020, LOESS HILLS NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, MO. - Twenty-four image sequence of a Trumpeter Swan pair taking off across an icy marsh at Loess Hills National Wildlife Refuge. This was just after dawn on January 7, 2020. There were hundreds of Trumpeters on the refuge. Because of their weight (20-25 pounds), swans need 100 yards of water to become airborne. The swoosh of their wing flaps and the impact of their feet hitting the water made a distinctive "whap, whap, whap" sound echoing across the marsh as they struggled for altitude. 

4/17/19, SEA OF CORTEZ, BAJA, MX - As the Zodiac bobbed in the Sea of Cortez, next to a sheer island cliff, two birds brought their fight to me — 30-feet below. Erupting with screams and for no obvious reason, no quarter was given as the Raven and Yellow-footed Gull tumbled in the air. I watched After breaking for a moment, suspended—as if to reassess—they went at it again, full-throated and filled with fury, The Raven attacking. I shot. Aerial jiu-jitsu. Dueling beaks. Twisting flailing contortions as they began to fall. The Raven loosened its grip and the Yellow-foot reversed course to attack. Two or three seconds, seven images of unbridled aggression. Who knows, who won. I saw no feathers pulled, nor a nest raided, merely separation in opposite directions. I shot this sequence at 1/8000 sec, f2/8, ISO220, with the 70-200mm zoom at 200mm and did my best to keep the warriors in the frame and hoped auto-focus worked. Yellow-footed Gulls are endemic to Baja and the Sea of Cortez. They are large, with a 27-inch wingspans and weigh almost three pounds. The Common Raven is only sightly smaller, and is found throughout the West, Canada and the northeastern United States.
 

7/16/19, LINCOLN, NE - For spells during a week or two in July, Monarch Butteries performed aerial combat in the backyard. They fed on a lone blooming liatris, then seriously fought, banging wings and long-extended legs while airborne. Driven by food or territory, they battled until apparently exhausted. I captured this series during the early evenings with a lens at 70 mm at f/3.5 between 1/4000th and 1/6400th a second. Because of their rapid movements and changing positions, approximately one in 20 shots were in focus. The shooting fatigued me. I have not previously observed such recurring behavior.  

American Avocets, Quivira NWR, KSAvocets queue on a mudflat to feed on worms at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. Shallows Crowd, Quivira NWR, KSEgrets and curlews crash an American Avocet feeding line to create chaos on a mudflat at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. 9/4/19, QUIVIRA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, KS - American Avocets form a train, moving in a narrow file bobbing slightly; they swish their bills through the shallow, saline mud flat capturing invertebrates. It's an organized mob that soon attracts a crowd. Egrets -- Great and Snowy -- and Ibises descend in numbers. A Heron or two stand at the perimeter The late comers are not worm eaters. They mingle and flap and squawk as human crowds do. Activity attracts, even when it is another's business.

Light on Quivira NWRDay breaks at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge on Sept. 5, 2019. 9/5/19, QUIVIRA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, KS - Past of Rattlesnake Creek, I beat true West along the levy road, a one-laner narrowed by encroaching grass stubble. A human outlier, I intrude on the marsh’s creature rhythms. Only mosquitos welcome me. Ducks are the first to fly, exploding upward in waves.  Egrets, herons, ibises, stilts, and avocets fidget and wait for a clarion threat to move. Cattails, sunflowers and milkweed soak the orb’s first glints. Doubled dragonflies hum by. Quivira’s salty shallows awaken.

 

8/11/19, YELLOWSTONE PARK, WY - On a park tour we spotted a small group of Bighorn Sheep on a steep slope above the Gardiner River. Soon the sheep began to angle down the hillside to the water. The littlest Bighorn dashed recklessly through shale, on the edge of a tumbling, to reach the river and its herd. By contrast, the lead ram negotiated the hill with a few controlled, elegant strides, and took a sip at the river bank.

FoxA baker in Cooke City, MT, says she's fed a series of foxes in early morning over 10 years. This one is awaiting its egg at 5 a.m.

8/12/19, COOKE CITY, MT - Disparate realms align in blue light. She awaits the baker, who trades in loaves and nourishes Cooke City wanderers. She peers in; skitters away; returns. For ten years, a fox has found this intersection of human-animal universes. The baker yields. Wayfarers come for sustenance. It is the baker's trade. All comers know hunger. One egg, lightly scrambled, tossed to the sidewalk. A dawn promise kept.

 

2/17/19 HOLMES PARK, LINCOLN, NE - Wind dancer dares gravity, tipclaws limbs, wing brakes, balances, stills, and then, a triumphant glance to the interloper. Adios!