Hey dtel,  I'm taking most of the pictures from our bedroom window and the nest is maybe 100 feet away or so.  I broke my digital slr (I have a Nikon D700 on the way) so I'm just using a Nikon Coolpix P80 handheld (with VR on) and zoomed out to about 450mm optical.  I'm cropping the images a bit too.  Hope to get the new slr soon.

I would love to see that Pic from a D700.

customsteve01:

Do bats count as bird's or prey?

With teeth like that, close enough for me !

TNRabbit:

 I saw this Millenium Falcon out back a few days ago...

If I saw that I would have to run inside, and change my pants.

sorry double post........

The story with the bat picture is.  We went out to the barn to let the horses out and we opened the sliding barn door and BOO the bat fell out.  I assume he or she was hanging, sleeping between the door and the barn.  Well, he landed on the ground and stayed there long enough for Caroline to run to the house and get the camera.  I took the picture no zoom, I was just standing over him.  I touched him with my boot and he spread his wings and opened his mouth making for a great picture IMO.

Mark,

Caroline said those are some great pictures and that you should get ahold of your state parks and wildlife and see if they would like to have a copy of the pictures (that is if your willing to share them) They could use them to show kids how the baby birds grow.

Steve 

Nice pictures Sputnik... I am jealous.  I lived in Bozeman for a while a long time ago, but have never been back since.  It doesn't get much better than there for things to do outdoors.

I have a huge red tail that has been hanging out around the house. The other day he caught a rat behind the storage building. He flew up to the telephone wire and ate it in a matter of a couple of minutes. My wife, my 16 year old son and I watched him devour the rat from 50 yards away through several pairs of Swarovski binoculars. What spectacular expierence to watch. For some reason this one apears to have absoutely fear of man. Pays little attention to us. Middle of the city.

I have hunted high up in trees heavily camoflauged for a number of years -climbing up 30-40 feet hours before dawn on many occasions.  I have falled asleep and woke up with great horned owls staring me in the face from 2 feet away trying to figure out what I was. I had a hawk try to light on the barrel of my rifle one time. Try that one for a rush sometime. Many encounters with birds of prey. They are some of the most facinating, coolest creatures that nature has to offer. Once near extinction, they are making a heck of a comeback. Nature's perfect predator.

I have a bunch of barred owls in the woods around my house. It's great to hear them talking back and forth at night. I've seen them early in the morning, but it's hard to find them to get pics once the sun is up. Red tails are in the area too, and usually a family of turkeys grows up through the summer and wanders through the yard.

Hey Mark, you feeling recovered from your accident or still got some healing going on?

Bruce

Hey Bruce, thanks for asking - I'm getting around much better but  I've been working up north and I havn't been able to get to the PT clinic at all this summer and put on a bunch of pounds from inactivity.  Looks like I'll always have some slight numbness in my lower legs and I may have a limp but I consider myself dang lucky to be alive and getting on with life thanks largely to my wife.

These hawks are pretty special to us.  As some here may know, I wrecked real bad in the fall of '07.  I crunched my motorcycle and my pelvis (among a few other things.)  I was laid up through the spring of '08 but at least I was in a perfect place with nothing to do but watch the hawks from the bedroom window as they rebuilt the nest and raised two little ones.  I was able to get around on my own again about the same time they left the nest last year.  Sounds corny, but it was amazing and uplifting to watch all four of them soaring together through the summer.

Hey Proffesor Thump, when did you live here - maybe we crossed paths at some point?

Anyway, the new camera got here yesterday and the hawks have been moving out of the nest.  They'll sit on the limbs and preen and practice flapping - pre-flight checklist.  We're thinking they'll be flying to other trees soon.  I'm glad I'll be home for a few days.

This morning they were already lining up for the parade and fireworks 

Hey look, no hands 

Front and back plumage 

Preening and attempted larceny 

Wing Flapping 101 

Check out that talon - look out rodents 

Mark,

    Glad to hear your doing better, I rembember hearing about that a while back. I used to ride in FL but one rainy nite a guy blew a stop sign and when I hit the brakes, my rear wheel passed me. I didn't know what to do so I just kinda let the bike go. It righted it self and kept on going when I got home I changed my shorts and sold the bike. Of course I'm over it now, but the season is so short I Maine I don't think buying a bike make sense.

     That last set of pics is awsome!

Any chance of getting a high res image of a couple of them?

I'll trade for a good Loon pic or something.

Brac:

Mark,

    Glad to hear your doing better, I rembember hearing about that a while back. I used to ride in FL but one rainy nite a guy blew a stop sign and when I hit the brakes, my rear wheel passed me. I didn't know what to do so I just kinda let the bike go. It righted it self and kept on going when I got home I changed my shorts and sold the bike. Of course I'm over it now, but the season is so short I Maine I don't think buying a bike make sense.

     That last set of pics is awsome!

Any chance of getting a high res image of a couple of them?

I'll trade for a good Loon pic or something.

Sure Brac, I'd be happy send you some - hopefully, I'll be getting some more and I'd love a loon shot or two.  I hope it's ok, but I've been shooting these as fine JPGs (1:4 compression and 4256x2832 image size) instead of raw files.  Will that work for you?

Great pictures and you can sure see a difference in the pic's also. I was going to say you need to frame some of those to hang in the house but it would be hard to pick which ones to frame. 

Here are a few more shots from this morning.  I switched to a mirror lens for more focal length and a different depth of field blur

flaps up......check

flaps down......check

Mama brought in a fresh kill - I didn't realize that she was still tearing the meat for the young ones

Just one more if no one minds.  Both parents showed up just after sunset.  They did a little feeding and then flew from tree to tree as the little ones flapped and screached - maybe they were giving flying demonstrations.  Then both of them hung out together on the same tree for a while.  Sorry for the poor quality, it was pretty dark so I had do do some enhancements to bring out the detail.

mom and pop