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Elizabeth Boehm Photography

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Elizabeth Boehm Photography

Category Archives: Birds

Northern Pygmy-Owl

23 Saturday Jan 2016

Posted by Elizabeth Boehm in Bird ID, Bird Sightings, Birds, Owls, Wildlife

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

birding, birds, hunting, Northern Pygmy-Owl, owl, winter

Northern Pygmy Owl

I had been noticing a number of Northern Pygmy Owl sightings in Wyoming via the social media loop. Thus, I decided to head out and look for my own. I went to an area in which I had suspected this fierce, small owl may live. I had heard calls in the springtime for several years but had no luck in finding this raptor. Trudging through the deep snow, I was not seeing or hearing a single bird. I eventually turned around and headed back to the car. Sure enough, silhouetted against the skyline, sat my owl in a dead evergreen. I watched this little owl from a distance as it hunted the edge of an open meadow. I could not believe the speed in which it could fly as it changed it’s lookout. It sat at the top of an evergreen for quite some time and then disappeared deep into the forest out of sight. I was thrilled this small hunter had shown itself to me!

Image

It’s a Bird Eat Bird World

29 Saturday Aug 2015

Tags

BUOW, Burrowing Owl, Flight, flying, HOLA, Horned Lark, prey

Burrowing_Owl

Posted by Elizabeth Boehm | Filed under Bird Sightings, Birds, Owls

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Virginia Rail Plucking Feather

23 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by Elizabeth Boehm in Bird ID, Bird Sightings, Birds

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

feathers, plucking, preening, Rallus limicola, VIRA, Virginia Rail, wetland, Wyoming

Virginia Rail plucking featherI have been having a ball following and photographing a family of Virginia Rails this summer. Virginia Rails are small, marsh birds that are not often seen as they are secretive in nature. These birds live in wetlands, moving around the base of cattails and sedges, not a place too many people enjoy in the buggy, summer months. I was photographing this particular rail as it preened. I watched it pull a primary feather from it’s wing and drop it on the water. I was ready as it started to work on the second wing, sure enough, it grabbed onto a primary, plucked it from it’s wing, and dropped it neatly onto the other feather. Here is the series of photos.

Virginia Rail plucking featherVirginia Rail plucking featherVirginia Rail plucking featherVirginia Rail plucking featherVirginia Rail plucking feather

International Migratory Bird Day

10 Sunday May 2015

Posted by Elizabeth Boehm in Bird ID, Bird Sightings, Birds

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Tags

birding, birds, International Migratory Bird Day, Killdeer, snow, Snowing, Spring

Killdeer in SnowIn honor of International Migratory Bird Day, this year on May 9, I decided to spend the entire day birding. I was not going for a big day, just spending the day outside watching birds. The weather, cool and very overcast, was not the best for birding. It had been raining several days prior to the day thus the “gravel” (dirt) roads were already somewhat messy. I decided to stick to driving on pavement and hiking several known areas. By afternoon the sky opened up and snow started to fall, numerous birds had stalled out from their spring migration. The water birds were just fine but when I entered the sage brush habitat all seemed to be quiet. I captured this lone Killdeer in a pasture, standing in the snow, I am sure there was another close by sitting on eggs. All in all it was a great day to be out: 77 species and 1761 birds recorded.

Chukars and Meadowlarks

28 Saturday Mar 2015

Posted by Elizabeth Boehm in Bird Sightings, Birds

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Antelope Island, birding, birds, Chukar, Courting, Spring, Western Meadowlark

Chukar crowingI recently spent a night camping on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake of Utah. The weather had been hovering around 70 degrees which was warm by March standards. It was very pleasant.  I had high hopes of catching a few Chukars courting in the rocks.  They did not fail me and were quite the posers! This is a colorful non-native bird like the Ring-necked Pheasant. As with most members of the Phasianidae Family (Upland Game Birds) they put on quite the display for courting. Standing on top of a high perch, typically a rock in this area, they would cackle and then perform a crowing call for the females.  One could tell if a female was close as the crowing and cackling would become much more intense especially if there were two males vying for her attention.  The male would come down off of the rock and follow the female, moving very quickly, and then finding another display perch.  It was hard to predict where they would move to as Chukars can move quickly on the ground. It is an awesome photo event! Chukar walking down rockAlong with the Chukars there were a number of birds visible on the island with numerous spring migrants having returned and in the process of claiming their territories. One of which was the Western Meadowlark, very prevalent along the roadways. This bird has always been elusive to my camera; flying away with just the thought of picking up the camera for a photo.Western Meadowlark singing I was fortunate to grab a few shots using my vehicle as a blind. The birds were singing on a variety of perches consisting of bushes, rocks, and signposts. Obviously used to a fair amount of traffic they were not nearly as wary of my camera as I had expected. It was a delight to hear them belt out their songs so close. I typically think of the Meadowlark as being a ventriloquist, making this bird sometimes difficult to find. At Antelope Island, with the shorter distances in which they tolerated me, it was very obvious as to the perch the song was coming from. A definite sign of the arrival of Spring! Western Meadowlark singing

Coots, Mallards, and Swans

23 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by Elizabeth Boehm in Bird ID, Bird Sightings, Birds

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Tags

American Coot, birds, Feeding, Mallard, Trumpeter Swan, waterfowl

Coot and Mallards feeding from SwanI like to check out the Swans on Flat Creek when I visit Jackson, Wyoming. It was a day that was too warm for December and the light was a bit contrasty. The creek was wide open with no ice and the swans were scattered with the exception of a group of three feeding close to the viewing platform on the northern edge of town. I sat and ate my lunch and watched the small group of swans feeding. I noticed the coots and mallards coming in really close to the up-ended birds.  I then realized they were scavenging odds and ends that the swans were stirring up from the bottom. Feeding on Flat CreekThe coots were in and out between the family of three swans with one swan giving it an annoyed bite as it approached too close. The mallards also occasionally went at the coots being protective of their feeding turf. The coots were diligent and every so often they found a morsel to feed on. Photographing this behavior was not easy as I had to be quick with the focusing and exposure compensation. The birds were constantly moving making sharpness and depth of field a non-stop problem. My slow photo day turned into a fun December afternoon watching the birds and practicing my camera skills.

American Coot and Trumpeter Swan feeding

 

 

The Passenger Pigeon

01 Monday Sep 2014

Posted by Elizabeth Boehm in Birds, Events

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

birds, Cincinnati Zoo, endangered, extinct, Greater Sage Grouse, nesting colonies, Passenger Pigeon

100 years ago today, the last Passenger Pigeon died in the Cincinnati Zoo. Her name was Martha and she never flew as a wild bird. A sad day indeed, as this species numbered in the billions in the mid-1800’s and was almost gone by 1890. Large flocks were reported to take days to fly over as they migrated in the spring from the southern US to the northern midwest states and beyond. They took over large tracts of forests for nesting colonies. It is a sight I would have loved to have seen. I imagine myself standing outside my home (with an umbrella) and watching in amazement at the sheer numbers of birds flying over. They were slaughtered by the millions as the recently-invented telegraph would send out word as to the location of the great flocks and nesting colonies. The carcasses were placed in barrels and shipped to the larger cities for fine dining and other uses.

Even with protection of the Migratory Bird Treaty or the Endangered Species Act, in today’s world, I believe the Passenger Pigeon would have a hard time surviving. We humans like our wildlife counted and orderly these days. There needs to be a “purpose” to these living beings. Do they provide food and nourishment, companionship, livelihood, recreation, or are they beautiful to look at? The Passenger Pigeon, I understand, was a beautiful bird, it could have fit in as a food source, and of course, it could have been very popular for recreational hunting. But it needed to live in large colonies covering miles of wooded areas for nesting, feeding, and roosting. Yes, we could have set aside large tracts of land as parks or refuges but this bird moved yearly to areas of plentiful acorns and beech nuts. This bird would not have tolerated being confined to specific areas. Would we allow this? Would we be grateful that we get to shovel our sidewalks of guano after we witnessed a million-bird flock passing over our house as it migrated to its northern nesting area? One would hope they would navigate around major cities but what if the flock decided to settle in on a foggy night in downtown Chicago. Amongst many other issues, imagine the traffic problems of a million crow-sized birds coming in for a landing, darkening the sky. I don’t think we are this tolerant, we would not have control of this bird that would always come along in large flocks.

As a photographer, I try to imagine what it would be like to photograph the incredible flocks along with individual birds of this species. I would have sat in a photo blind in the middle of a nesting colony, catching “the changing of the guard” as the males came in to relieve the females of the nesting duties and vice versa. I would photograph the squabs as they grew and then eventually drop to the ground where they moved en masse. What would a large, oak tree look like with pigeon nests covering all of the branches. What other wildlife would come through feeding off of this “endless” supply of food?

These are just a few of the thoughts I have. I would have loved to have seen and photographed these incredible flocks of birds and their annual life history. I consider the birds we now have and could lose. I would be devastated if I could not watch the lekking behavior of the Greater Sage Grouse each spring.

No photos available.

Recent Posts

  • Northern Pygmy-Owl
  • It’s a Bird Eat Bird World
  • Virginia Rail Plucking Feather
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