Sometimes the falcons  exert what seems from my vantage point like a lot of energy acquiring a meal, like chasing down a Sanderling, maneuvering one out over open water and cutting off its climb for height or an escape back to the  flock.  Recently I have been noticing, instead, some almost casual chases.  The falcon will gain considerable height and then soar headed into the wind, waiting for a tired landbird to approach the coast from off the sea.  The capture of these hapless migrants is usually accomplished with a minimum of effort, sometimes in only a couple of passes at the prey.  It’s not casual at all for the victim, I am sure, but the odds against evasion are high.  After the stoop for capture, it’s a ho-hum glide down to the beach or an easy row against the breeze to settle on a suitable perch right on the sand.  In the photos that follow, the falcon’s meal was a Song Sparrow, definitely in the wrong place at the wrong time!

The stoop:

The look:

The getaway:

Tidying up:

Headed for the next course:

Speeding Bullet birds are very cool!  Lan

I have a list of folks who get an emailed notice from me with a URL to click on when I have posted a new blog.  There are also times when I just send out photos to that list (which is totally non-commercial) without bothering to blog about them or post them to a listserve.  Not on the list?  Want to be? Just contact me  saying you want to be on the list .  Also, please subscribe to this blog using the Feedburner sign up field above – it’s really easy -  in the right side column for automatic blog feeds to your email.  Getting off the list is just as simple.

These images and Lanny McDowell Avian Art fine art prints are available for purchase. Contact me or View my gallery.

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The checklist for the Martha’s Vineyard Christmas Bird Count, which takes place tomorrow, on January fifth, due to a weather delay, says the CBC has recorded one Tundra Swan  since 1999.  Soo Whiting’s book, Vineyard Birds II,  says tundras were seen more frequently and more regularly on CBCs up until ‘92 and then, for the most part, not seen after that.  She writes, “Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket are the two best places in Massachusetts where an observer might expect to see this rare visitor.”  It’s only a guess, but I would be quite surprised if the pair I saw will be seen tomorrow. How cool it would be if they were.

On New Year’s Day I took Stella out to Hancock Beach, on the lookout for winter Harriers and because we both wanted to stand at the edge of the ocean.  The road out to the dunes was flooded at the south end by the high waters of Chilmark Pond.  I parked the Jeep and reconnoitered for a way across, but it was soon clear that getting to the beach was not going to happen without a good chance of wet feet, even in my Muck Boots.  We backup up, turned around and went for another access further east, at Black Point Pond.  From a distance I could see that the beaches of the frozen pond were exposed, implying the water level there and on Tisbury Great Pond were still tidal, or at least relatively low.  This portends well for making it to the beach using the elevated wooden walkway that traverses the wettest areas just inboard of the barrier dunes.  Despite my optimism, thin ice covered water at each end of the walkway, water deep enough that I skirted the deepest parts and walked in the brushy sides to the path, where I thought the ice would hold me better and where there was some shrubbery to grab onto for stability.  Anyway, long story long, I slipped and slided out to the beach which was stunning in the harsh winter sunlight and devoid of any beings standing up.  No birds either.  I saw one skunkhead cruising just outside the incessant breakers, slowing occasionally to peruse small groups of other scoters.

Where is that guy? He is sooo slow!

Then there is the bit about posing, when I could be running, chasing, wading, digging ...

Same shot, west to Lucy Vincent Beach, less Stella

No birds in sight. All the inland water is frozen.

The way in. The way out. So far, two Great Black-backed Gulls and some distant scoters.

The place was absolutely beautiful.  You can’t really go wrong with the location.  If you feel bad here, then you feel bad.  It’s not the place.

I saw a distant mocker.  A couple of TVs. I heard a Song Sparrow complain.  Can’t blame them, given the conditions on the ground, plus a biped and a boxer.  As I was walking over the too short bridge, I heard an unfamiliar sound.  Sometimes the metal-on-metal of my bino strap connection to my binos makes a little annoying squeak.  But no, this wasn’t that sound.  It was lower, and soft.  Straight ahead and up maybe fifty/sixty feet were two swans winging west, not in a hurry, but steady on.  I unslung my camera first, keeping the shutter punched and wheeling in and out of focus as the birds moved on.  When the swans were too far out for the camera, I used my binocs to see if they put down anywhere.  They made one looping pass over the northeast end of Greater Chilmark Pond and then continued west beyond my tolerance for straining my eyes.

Now that I think of it, I do not remember hearing any whistle from the swans’ wings, the way you would with a Mute Swan.  That reedy vibration the flight feathers make.  Perhaps subliminally that lack of wing sound told me these were Tundra Swans.

I am told there were tundras spotted on the Nantucket CBC, also on the first of the year, later in the day than I encountered the Vineyard birds.  So have a second look at swans you are taking for granted this time of year.

But wait! What's that unfamiliar call?

Birds are cool!  Lanny

These images and Avian Art fine art prints are available for purchase. Contact me or View my gallery.

I have a list of folks who get an emailed notice from me with a URL to click on when I have posted a new blog.  There are also times when I just send out photos to the list without bothering to blog about them or post them to a listserve.  Not on the list?  Want to be? Just contact me  saying you want to be on the list or, better yet,  subscribe to Feedburner above, in the right side column for automatic blog feeds to your email.  Getting off the list is just as simple.

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It’s not very hard to obtain decent bird photos of duck, goose and swan families this time of year.  Whatever attitude you may hold about introduced species and the roles they play, Mute Swans are easy on the eyes, truly avian art in the most basic sense.

You know I have a schtick about getting close to my avian art subjects, so here is another set:

There is nothing wrong with this little guy’s leg.  It’s just one of their postures, young and adult alike.  They often seem to be doing exactly the same behavior or pose at the same time:

These images and Avian Art fine art prints are available for purchase. Contact me or View my gallery.

Birds are cool!  Lanny

I have a list of folks who get an emailed notice from me with a URL to click on when I have posted a new blog.  There are also times when I just send out photos to the list without bothering to blog about them or post them to a listserve.  Not on the list?  Want to be? Just contact me  saying you want to be on the list or, better yet,  subscribe to Feedburner above, in the right side column for automatic blog feeds to your email.  Getting off the list is just as simple.

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Hot off the presses, straight from the fields of Chilmark to your monitor screen.  The phone and email thread went from Keith to Whiting to Manter to McDowell to  refinding with Whiting this very elegant and rather casual drop-in.

No frills, just bird photographs:

It is the Vineyard, after all:

I have a list of folks who get an emailed notice from me with a URL to click on when I have posted a new blog.  There are also times when I just send out photos to the list without bothering to blog about them or post them to a listserve.  Not on the list?  Want to be? Just contact me (below right) saying you want to be on the list or, better yet,  subscribe to Feedburner above, in the right side column for automatic blog feeds to your email.  Getting off the list is just as simple.

These images and Avian Art fine art prints are available for purchase. Contact me or View my gallery.

Birds are cool!  Lanny

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