Territory Days

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Memorial Day weekend means Territory days. The birds are all part of “HawkQuest”.

: Laurie getting whipped, I think she liked it.

: the Girls!

: I think the lines through her eyes are because I caught her in mid blink.

: If I was a falconer, I’d paint some cool stuff on my birds helmet!

: she’s blind in one eye, she ran into something at about a year old. At one year their eyes are still dark. her eye stayed that way and did not change to the usual golden yellow.

: A male Harris’s Hawk

: a female gyr falcon.

: The blacksmith stamping “Taylor” in her lucky horse shoe.

American White Pelicans

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There have been some Pelicans hanging out at Fountain Creek Nature Center. I went down there at lunch today. I guess I can probably blame “finding nemo”, whenever I do a pelican voice in my head, it has to have an Australian accent.

Bald Eagles of Fountain Valley School

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A friend took me on the campus today to see the eagle’s nest. Both were there, and we were able to get a glimpse of both babies. I got caught changing settings and “chimping” and missed one of them take off from its perch! next time, next time.

Snowy Day Herons

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I went over to the lake at lunch yesterday. There was a gentle snow coming down, and three herons were on the same end of the lake. They were more interested in the fisherman’s stringers than me, so I managed to get pretty close.

Beaver Sighting

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We met downtown to walk the dogs after work. We saw out first beaver of the year. He/She was a baby, really small. We’ll try and get back down there at dusk this weekend and see if we can see how many are in this years “litter”. The Heron let me watch him for a little while, no koi while I was watching. Taylor took the dogs pictures, with my 7D and 40mm.

Herons on the Lake

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Spring means the return of the Great Blue Herons. They nest along a nearby creek, and fish this lake near my office during the day. There is one shot with a guys head in the foreground. The Heron had noticed his stringer of trout and was doing his best to get it. I included that shot to illustrate how close he got to the guy and his stringer of fish. The shots with the Heron on the dock, I just thought those were funny.

Lazy circles in the sky

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My favorite pair of Hawks are back on their nest near my office. He did his usual behavior, yell at me a few times and then circle overhead to see what I was up to. I don’t think they have laid eggs yet, both were on the move at the same time.

Raptor Sunday

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Took a drive today and ran across a few things. Including a distant sighting of one of the Bald Eagles calling the Fountain Valley School home.

My first Great Blue Heron of 2013

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This morning while I was capturing the sunrise at Quail Lake, I saw my first heron of the year. I went back and lunch and watched as he caught two trout. Lots of good ones in here, and lots of ones best seen in a series. So I apologize in advance for the number of images in the gallery.