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I am very pleased to get these shots of this Northern Harrier. I got these a couple hours ago down the road where we have seen this bird and another or so in a pasture. These birds have been seen on private land and I do not trespass so when this opportunity arose today, while this Northern Harrier was not on the private land I took it! While doing my research on this bird I came to realize why this bird of prey had a problem being still for me. Blending in is what I try to do with the environment, but being quiet is another story. This bird realize on hearing as much as sight when hunting. This bird was hearing me coming! The male and female of the species look very different I found out as well. This Harrier is the male of the species. I thought this Northern Harrier was on some prey, however after looking over the photographs it appears to be on some grasses.

I pay a lot of attention to Ravens. Some of my best photographs came to be because of the ravens. Ravens are really just a big crow. They are a very intelligent bird, which I guess some can argue with. They work as a team. As a family unit and are very bold creature. More than one raven is called "An unkindness of ravens", I can see why because wow can they drive off the biggest of creatures! There are ten species of the Raven with two more that are said to be extinct. The Magpie appears to be tolerated by the Raven, though they too are finally ran off by the bigger Raven. The Magpie we have here are very smart birds, though I really do not "listen" to them as I do the Raven. After seeing the all the Ravens in a small clearing it did not take Guy long to stop the truck and off I went into the brush. Guy seen a little of what the Ravens were doing, this was running off the eagles. There were two eagles. One was a big Golden Eagle, the other was a young smaller Bald Eagle. Many of these two species of eagles are showing up together these days. I have not noticed this in years past, but this year WOW has this been obvious! The Golden Eagle standing on the prey is the first thing we noticed after the Ravens. The prey I could not identify. Did I want to identify it, not really!! It was white and it appeared to have died some time ago. One thing people do not understand about Eagles, the Golden Eagle and the Bald Eagle is, they will take a meal whether they themselves hunted it down, or if it died by some other means. Eagles will do their best to steal prey as well. The species of eagles are opportunists. They can be scavengers. The Raven were doing the best they could to run off the Eagles, but the Golden Eagle was having no part of being ran off by Ravens! The young Bald Eagle was trying to grab some of the meal when I was getting close, but took off up into a tree to watch. These are the photographs of this event.

Bird Of Prey Finishing A Meal. Found this bird finishing up what looked like a rodent. Soon after this the bird flue off. Several of these (some kind of hawk), were in this area. Talking very loudly to each other.

Bird Of Prey In All Its Glory. Saturday was a good day for seeing birds.

Bird Of Prey Perched In A Tree. This is one of the pair that was up in this tree.

Eagle In Waiting For A Meal. I believe this to be a young golden eagle. We came across many birds of prey on our outing Saturday. The electrical pole gives a good reference of how big this bird is. At this time of the year we have many youngsters out and about.

I caught this bird flying here in Central Oregon

This is one of my bird of prey photographs

Bird Of Prey In Flight.

It Is Just To Hot! Who says wildlife does not speak our language? Many birds of prey were caught with their wings up to cool themselves off Saturday. I caught one bird panting even! Oh this one knows I am there.

It Is Just To Hot! Who says wildlife does not speak our language? Many birds of prey were caught with their wings up to cool themselves. I caught one bird panting even! Oh this one knows I am there.

Nature can be not so nice. Animals have to eat, this is just the way it is. Birds of prey are a favorite of mine to capture with my camera. I like to get them hunting and when I get a chance, to get them eating. I chose only ten photographs to show, from when I first seen this red tailed hawk eating, to when he flew off. It was not easy to pick out only ten photographs!! He/she even gave me the evil eye a time or two! When Guy asked me if I wanted to go somewhere I was up and getting ready!

Just a few hours ago Guy took me around the block. Oh probably ten miles or so?? It was nice to get out of the house! I do not know about other places, but here this species of falcon are not real..... they take off as soon as attention is directed at them. In other words I have tried to get some shots of the sparrow hawk and finally I did. This American Kestrel is the smallest falcon in North America. Used in falconry so they must be pretty smart! I think they are pretty little birds! Eating grasshoppers, other small birds, and rodents so they are good to have around. Oh I believe they eat the lizards we have here too. It looks like we are in for more bad weather here in central oregon but the wildlife need to eat and I was happy we seen what we did on our short drive.

Ferruginous Hawk, bird of prey

We watched the Bald Eagles fishing for a while. I understand I need a better tele lens than what I have now for such things as this. It will come. I started out from the truck on the road. Looking down into the canyon I was not sure if I wanted to climb down but found myself doing it!! Guy parked the truck basically just on the dirt road. Over to the side the best he could just so if people were around they could get by it. No where to park! Soon Guy and the dogs were coming too, the dogs found me first of course! We all made our way down into the canyon to the water. Not only were the Bald Eagles fishing, other birds were as well. Their were two adult Bald Eagles and a younger Bald Eagle. The younger one kept trying to take the older ones fish! Big fights ensued. If I did have have this stupid tree in my way!! So we moved locations so the tree would no longer be in my way, though we were in full sight of the eagles as well. So the young Bald Eagle took off out of sight. It did appear that the Bald Eagles were curious as to what we were, and why we were there! They checked us out several times. Than the ducks, and other wildlife left. All three Bald Eagles took off to the other side of the canyon and that was that. To my understanding that side of the canyon belongs to the Warm Spring Indian Reservation, though I could be wrong. The older adults perched in the same tree, while the younger one went into a tree where he could hide from our view. We seen some of his white, but he was not to secure as the older ones were about us seeing him! It was pretty obvious that this younger Bald Eagle was not comfortable around people, or what the eagle did not understand. Here are several photographs of one of the older Bald Eagles fishing.

Antelope Buck. Saturday was mainly a bird of prey day, however this buck and his harem we did see as well. It is that time of the year.

Taking kingfishers stunning pictures in action is a challenging job. These birds are agile and so active that impossible to follow their action. ZW Young , great nature photographer apt in this skill and show some stunning pictures of kingfishers in action.

We came upon a site last weekend I would like to share. At first I did not know what species of hawk this was, but with help from others the question of what kind of hawk this is was answered! Photography of wildlife is never to pass up a opportunity, even if you do not know exactly what species of wildlife.......

This hawk is after something.

Long Eared Owls. Wild Owls photographed here in central Oregon.