FishhawkBill wrote:
Great shots. Looking forward to more on these.
I'm new to this. How can I see your (or others') profile so I can learn about your equipment?
Bill, welcome to the Forum. You can see anyone's profile just by clicking the "profile" button at the bottom of a post. Also, if you click the "www" button, it will take you to a user's online photo site, and many of these sites contain information showing the equipment and settings used to take individual pictures. All the pictures of mine in this thread were taken with a 40D and 300/2.8 with 2x TC.
Chris, I'd be excited, too. This is awesome. Beautiful images, intriguing story - and more to come. Love this, and can't wait for the next installment.
Thanks, Maggie. I actually just finished sending a PM to Lou to give him today's update. It was overcast, cold and windy today, so I did not take any new pictures (I will start a new thread when I do), but I did see both hawks this morning. Here is the update:
In short, they seem to be behaving pretty normally. When I showed up early this morning (overcast, cold and and windy so I did not take my camera), she was sitting quietly on the nest. Pretty soon I could hear the male nearby, getting closer, and saw him flying around, so I figured he would show up pretty soon, and he did. They swapped off so he was sitting on the eggs and she flew to a nearby tree and I thought she was eating something -- so perhaps he brought her some food. Anyway, they called back and forth to each other for a minute and then she went hunting nearby. I watched her from a distance and she was diving down onto the ground, hopefully catching some food. She stayed pretty close to the nest during this whole exercise, while the male seems to go further when he leaves. When I had to go, the male was still on the nest and the female was still hunting nearby.
The good news is that they are both still seemingly committed to the nest and working together. And the other good news is that the male seems equally oblivious to me being near the nest as the female.
I also saw the female pass up a really great opportunity to attack a squirrel -- must have been too big for her and she was looking at it, but did not go for it.
Anyway, that is the latest for the hawks. Hopefully the sun will come out this week sometime and I can try for some more pictures. Then once we get into mid-April and the eggs have (hopefully) hatched, that is when the real excitement begins!
I have never seen a predator guard before...what is that all about, who is climbing up there and causing trouble that the mom cant defend against mainly?
Nathan Hobbs wrote:
I have never seen a predator guard before...what is that all about, who is climbing up there and causing trouble that the mom cant defend against mainly?
Nathan, from what I have read raccoons would be the primary terrestrial threat to the nest, so the predator guard would make it more difficult for one to climb up there. I also imagine a possum or feral cat could be a threat. Red-shouldered hawks are not that big and generally eat things that are chipmunk sized or smaller, so something as big as a raccoon or a possum would be very difficult for them to deal with if they were determined to get to the nest.
csd2020 wrote:
Outstanding portraits with superb detail. Please keep us updated.
Steve
Thanks, Steve. It is going to be overcast and rainy most of this week, so I probably will not get over there to check on them again until this weekend. Hopefully I can get some more pictures once the sun comes out ...
Thanks, Susan. I hope to be able to photograph them again this Sunday, which is the next time we are supposed to have sunshine here. I did check on the nest on Tuesday and the female was still sitting, cool as a cucumber.
Don't forget I am headed your way the weekend onf May 9 and I am planning a trip to the Baylands, so please tell your local wading birds to cooperate!
Hi Chris. Just getting an update on this young lovers. This is a very exciting series and I hope you'll be able to show us the fruits of their lovepretty soon. Now, how lucky are you! (and us too )
Socrate
