More Merlins

Im telling you go to fire island on a north wind and you will get birds. We had 20 merlins and 40 kestrels migrating that day. We also had 7 sharpies, which i have one picture of. The Merlins came in but kestrels are sissy falcons and stay away. One of the merlins was eating on the wing, meaning he was flying while eating. End of september means peregrines will start moving. I may take this wednesday off of school if it is good weather! I was there two years ago and had 60 peregrines in one day. and 100 merlins. Well enjoy some more of these pictures. My favorite shot is the first one where he was banking and i got his back!

below is the sharp shinned hawk

Bird Boys Back

hello, Everyone, I am now back for some more bird posts! I have had a really busy summer. I am now into junior year and it is really hard. Therefore I needed my sleep and havent had time to post :) Well I didnt bird much either. Now its mid september or end of it, the hawks are in full force. I went shorebirding for one of my first times ever at Jamaica bay this august. I got some really cool shots of least sandpipers. I also got some awesome merlin shots last week at fire island which gave me the inspiration to post today. these are only half the merlin shots, I will post the rest soon. BirdBoy

April Fools

Since today is April fools day I had to do something different. I also downloaded a photoshop like thing called gimp. It is awesome and I had a lot of fun playing around with it. I was testing it out on some of my photos. I did some cross genetics on my photos and invented three new species of raptors!!!! We have the rough legged eagle, the keserlin, and the short tail hawk( which is a real species i think)... Well i think they are funny. APRIL FOOLS


Below is the infamous Rough Legged Eagle ( bald eagle+rough leg)


Of course the Short tailed Hawk (redtail+Short eared)


My favorite the keserlin( Merlin+Kestrel)

Spring migration

Hawks are continuing to move northward to their breeding grounds. Sunday at Hook mountain Hawk watch we got a fair number of hawks. We had a merlin, but probably a mile over head.....you can tell by the horrible shot. At Croton Point park there are kestrels on the landfill. I chased one male around. They are such annoying birds to photograph. You can never get close to them. Hope you like the pics :)

Below are the kestrel pictures, Yep all of them is him flying away from me

Below is a immature red shouldered hawk migrating over hawk, They have windows on their wings which seperates them from red tails.

And here is that horrible merlin shot i was talking about.

The mighty falcon

I found a merlin along with the kestrels and other winterign raptors. We pulled u pretty close to this guy. I shot from the sunroof, which is the best way to get good shots. Hopefully this fall i will get even better shots, of this species. At fire island hawk watch i have seen over 300 merlins fly by in a single day. The best part is they are all eye level. In spring time i will post pictures of my favorite bird the peregrine falcon. They nest twenty minutes from my house!