Berylline Hummingbird

"Luck be a lady tonight." Or today. Actually it was September 9, 2009 while siting at Beatty's Orchard in Miller Canyon watching hummingbirds come to Tom's 10 hummingbird feeders. I was looking in front of me when something caught my eye to the nearest feeder (which was on my left). WOW! What a surprise. My first Berylline Hummingbird. It was a beautiful female. And, just as I snapped the photo a bee was flying into feed as well. Out of the three hours I spent there that day, this was the only visit of the Berylline. Luck was a lady that day.

Berylline Hummingbird

Barn Owl

I love owls. And, the Barn Owl is one of my favorites. And, while Barn Owls often hang out around .... well, barns, they also can be found in wilderness areas. Whitewater Draw in Southern Arizona "draws" many Barn Owls to nest. There's only about four acres of trees, but the Barn Owls like those trees and come to roost each winter. One year I counted 25. 

The Barn Owl is the most widespread of all owls and can be found around the world except in polar regions and some of the desert areas. Not so in the Sonoran Desert, where we can find them. It hunts by flying low over farmlands, fields, and other open areas looking for rodents.

Here is one of my favorites from Whitewater Draw:

Barn Owl

Banded Orange

Here is an example of a "5" rated photo whose "qualifications" include simplicity. It's got nice clarity and composition. It's got nice off-setting colors. But it also is a "peaceful" photo. I don't know if I'll be able to explain it, but it's not an "in-your-face" "wow" kind of photo, but a soothing and relaxing photo that I have often used as my desktop photo.  

Banded Orange

Bald Eagle IV

The last of my "5" rated Bald Eagles was especially nice. 

Unlike other photographic specialties: portrait, landscape, industrial, architecture, etc. wildlife photographers sometimes have less than 5 seconds to get a photo. If it doesn't happen, or if the photo doesn't turn out, you've missed a once in a lifetime opportunity. 

I was traveling on a back country road in Northern California among rolling hillsides. As I was climbing I saw two Bald Eagles that appeared to be dancing. I quickly got to a point where I was parallel to them, pulled over, stopped the jeep, grabbed my camera, got out and started taking photos. Of those photos this is the one I like best. The eagles were fighting at this point with one upside down and almost a mirror-image of the first. 

The entire event took less than 30 seconds.  Then they were gone.

Bald Eagles Fighting in Flight

Bald Eagle III

I realize that in many parts of the US there are no Bald Eagles or that they are rarely seen. Not so in the Northwest. Although, at one point the number of Bald Eagles had been reduced to less than 500 pairs in the lower 48 states, the numbers are back up to around 4500 nesting pairs now. In fact, the Bald Eagle was removed from the Endangered Species List in 2007. 

You would never know how rare they are if you lived in the Northwest. I remember once a friend coming to visit and upon seeing one, saying it was the first Bald Eagle she had ever seen. Yet, on a normal winter day along the Skagit River in Washington you can see around 300 Bald Eagles. On some days, as many as 700 can be seen. The Skagit River is one of the few rivers where all 5 Pacific salmon species spawn. (Chinook, also called Kings; Coho, also called Silvers; Chum, also called Dogs; Pink, also called Humpies; and Sockeye, also called Reds).

I once counted 40 Bald Eagles in a single tree. The problem, as a photographer, is "how to capture" that photo. You have to be far enough away to be able to get the entire tree in the frame. But, at such distance you loose a lot of detail and clarity. Of the many photos I have taken of large groups of Bald Eagles, none have made it to a "5" rating. Close-ups are a different story. In the photo below a Bald Eagle is sitting on what appears to be a 25-30 pound salmon that has come up the Skagit River to spawn. The Eagles will take some before they spawn, but most are taken after the fact as the salmon begin to die. It is the salmon that bring the Bald Eagles.

Bald Eagle with Salmon on the Skagit River (Washington)

Bald Eagle II

I guess living in the Northwest afforded many opportunities to photograph Bald Eagles, so several have ended up being rated a "5". This one is from Tule Lake in Northern California:

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

On to my "5" rated "B's", and first up: the Bald Eagle. Living in the Northwest provides an opportunity to see Bald Eagles frequently  -- as opposed to the very, very rare occasion that you see one in Southern Arizona. In one of my first trips (January, 1996) to Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, which is along the Oregon-California Border, I was able to get very close to a Bald Eagle perching on a pole. When I got to about 15 feet he decided to fly away. Here's the result:

Bald Eagle: Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge

Note: many of my early photos were with a lower quality camera. Over the years I have lost many of the negatives or slides and was left with only a print. Scanning the print hasn't always yielded the best result. So this is a scan of a print. Nonetheless, I like this well enough to include it as a "5" rated photo.