Saturday, May 22, 2010

Weekly Round-Up


Snake River at Swan Falls Dam.

I did a lot of birding this last week and took lots of photos; not very many good ones, but lots of them.  Before I get carried away into next week, I wanted to post a few photos of some of my recent birding adventures.  Sorry for the full on assault of photos, but why take them if you can't share them?!

One afternoon this week little three-year-old Claire and I took a drive to Indian Creek, Black's Creek, and through the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey area on Swan Falls Rd.  I passed a Golden Eagle perched on a rock right next to the highway.  I braked and put the truck in slow reverse to see about getting a photo.  Just as I had the camera ready, the behemoth flew.  What a huge bird.  Check out the wingspan and those huge yellow talons too.

Wild Flowers in bloom on the rim above Swan Falls.

Male Swainson's Hawk taking his turn on the nest in my neighborhood of Avimor in the Boise foothills.  Look closely!

Warbling Vireo along the Avimor greenbelt.  I am still trying to learn the best camera settings for photographing birds on overcast days.  Any tips?

Yellow-rumped Warbler at Black's Creek

MacGillivray's Warbler at Avimor's Spring Valley Creek

Western Tanager at Black's Creek.  Bad lighting, but it still conveys the awesome color of the head.

Black-headed Grosbeak along Spring Valley Creek Trail at Avimor

Snowy Egret at Black's Creek

American Goldfinch at Avimor

Caspian Tern at Black's Creek

4 comments:

  1. I've heard of the Swan Falls Dam, but never been there. It looks beautiful!

    And I love the Golden Eagle! We VERY rarely see them!

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  2. The photos are good, at least better than mine! thanks for the report...I like your blog a lot...

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  3. So glad you shared these! That Eagle is awesome!! Normally on overcast days I have to bump up my ISO to compensate. Lots of times I have to play around with it at the time to see what works best.

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  4. Nice photos! Your practicing is paying off. I was looking to get some shots of Goldens the afternoon the short-eared owl landed on the road in front of us. I suppose that's even better, since I've never seen on in the wild. (it happened so fast, though. wish my photo was better)

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