Peregrines-fire island

Birdboy does have some luck sometimes. I have been to fire 4 times in the past 3 years, and have hit 3 amazing days. Well saturday was another amazing day. The winds were north west so i left my house at 6 30 to get down there. We got there at 8 and the birds started moving. At the end of the day we had a total of 65 peregrines!!!!!! that is the second most peregrines that ever flew by the hawk site. Not jut peregrines but a total of 160 merlins. It was a lot of fun to see these birds. I didnt get amazing photos to post as it never got sunny, but maybe thats why the birds moved.. who knows. But friday night i knew i had to be there. I had a feeling god wanted me to be there. Thanks bud! My soccer practice got cancelled, I found a ride by some birders, it was all looking good! Well the next two weeks are when the adult male merlins move. They call them blue jacks, with there beautiful blue backs. Well here are some of my shots!

We had a good assortment of adult and immature birds. Below are some audlts hsot followed by adults

Below is a picture my Friend James Vellozzi took at fire island last year. This is a blue jack, the back is a nice gray blue. James takes some awesome raptor photos, and teaches me a lot. His website is jamesvellozzinaturephotography.com

peregrines take 2

I had a lot better luck with the peregrines this past week. I cant say a lot better because I still havent achieved what I want from them, but thats me being greedy. Atleast these pictures the belly of the peregrine look white inseatd of black, which is good haha. I like good pictures of the peregrines in which their white body is against the brown cliff, photographer Steve Sachs who takes way better pictures than me :)has great pictures of these peregrines on his website stevesachsphotography.com Hope you like

We arrived at the nest at 7 and by the looks of the peregrines crop it most likely already hunted.


Full frame of the peregrine with top of cliff in background

peregrines

Its summer!! that means sleep and eat and bird. I went to the palisades cliffs to watch a nesting pair of peregrines. By this time the young are about to fledge.While I was watching them and they mated? That usually means the first brood did not survive and they would try again. That means i got the whole summer to watch the peregrines. I managed to get a few shots even though here in NY the weather stinks. It goes from sunny to hail back to sunny in 5 minutes. Well these two pictures are good silhouettes. if you look up and see a black object like this it may be a peregrine falcon :)

Raptors part 2!

here are some more pictures from the feastival last weekend. My favorite picture is the Eagle Owl face shot. His eyes are awesome red orange.



Below is a Goshawk


Peregrine falcon Does anyone know why the breast is orangey?

A funny looking snowy owl

Peregrine with Prey

You are lucky when you can get to see peregrines hunt. They are so fast and very successful hunters. It is always fun to see what the peregrines hunt, Here is a picture i took a of peregrine with a bird in its talons. Its a pretty bad picture but you can see red on it.

Photographer Steve sachs has some cool pictures of peregrines with birds in its talons. Below is a picture he took with a oriole in its talons. his website with tons of raptor photos here

Peregrine

Before the red shoulders on sunday, it was dark and gloomy. We made a trip to the local peregrines. Luckily they are very close to the hawk watch. Above the cliffs thousands of red winged black birds were migrating north. The Peregrines kept flying back and chasing them. They chased crows, and almost caught a bird in my camera view. Well these are the shots i got, I will hopefully get a lot of better oppurtunities. If you know about cameras, i had to shoot at iso 1600 :(