The Raptor trip

Click here___ to see the Red Tailed Hawk video from this trip. On the road at the crack of dawn yesterday for a trip to Muscatatuck NWR. Then over to Starved Hollow area and then back to Muscatatuck NWR through Brownstown Bottoms. 9+ hours in all and only about .5 hour of video and a few stills {;-(. I thought about visiting Big Oak NWR or lake Patoka area but I decided not to use up a tank of gas until I have a job. I found out my Whooping Crane tracking system also tracks hunting dogs, Hum, not sure why hunting dogs transmitters are in the same frequency range as that used by Whooping Cranes????

I did see 5 Bald Eagles, four in the 135/Baseline Freetown area and 1 over Muscatatuck NWR. No good images or video, they just dont come close enough for my equipment {;-(. It looks as if a Bald Eagle nest is being constructed in the Freetown area. I stopped by the Bald Eagle nest near Starved Hollow but there was no activity there, It could be a little early yet. I also got to see the Muscatatuck NWR River Otters again, about the best part of the day, 20+ minutes of good video. I also was able to shoot a Red Tailed Hawk hunting for abour three minutes! I will add the video to the blog after I have a chance to edit it.


I was also hoping to see SandHill Cranes. Brownstown Bottoms is a good place to see Sandhills in the fall and spring, although I didnt see any on this trip.

Hawks are everywhere!

Red Tailed Hawk south side Indianapolis In. Camera: Canon SX30IS 

  As can be seen in this image, Raptors can be found in residential, commercial & industrial areas, sometimes even in commercial buildings! In this part of the country and Im sure in others parts it’s not uncommon to be driving down a city street and see a hawk soaring above or sitting in a nearby tree. 

  I spent four years in Cincinnati, on a job, and would drive back home to Indianapolis on the weekends. I started noticing hawks sitting in trees and on fences along my way. The first few years there might be three or four, the last year the numbers peaked to twelve to fifteen. The number in winter would be higher than any other time of the year.

 The larger numbers of raptors sitting near road sides in winter is due to a lack of food sources. In the case of the Red Tailed Hawk, a large percentage of first year hawks do not survive in to their second year! This is due to a number of reasons, lack of food during winter, taking chances on road kill, contact with power lines and more.

 A young Hawk that becomes a good hunter can survive the winter eating birds and other hard to catch prey. A poor hunter has survived into late fall eating bugs and small rodents, by winter this food source has died off or is under ground. The hawks then turn to road kill but this dodging in and out of traffic will be the demise of many a raptor.

An interesting image.

Captured at my apartment in West Lafayette, In. Camera Canon SX30IS.

  The apartment that I was renting, in West Lafayette, faced into a small nature area called Celery Bog. What a wonderful place to live for somebody who loves to watch and photograph wildlife. The day of this photo was a very snowy day and normally I would have been on my way to Indianapolis to be with my wife for the weekend. 

   Celery Bog was slow, so I decided to photography small bird, Wrens, Sparrows and such. I don't normally photography small birds unless they are Woodpeckers, Indigo Buntings, Hummingbirds or the smaller hawks and falcons.  I had been photographing small birds for about two hours when I decided It was time for a break from photographing. I had some chores that needed doing in the apartment

   I was only in the kitchen for about 15 minutes when I noticed a large Red Tailed Hawk in a tree across from the apartment.  The Red Tailed Hawk was watching the small birds that were working over my feeders and the bottom feeders that were working over the leftovers on the ground.  I grabbed the camera placed it on the tripod and started shooting. After the third shot, the Red Tailed Hawk left its perch in the tree and flew off.

   As I reviewed the images I came across this image. At first I thought I had moved the camera and the image was blurred and I almost deleted the image. As I stared at the image, I began to realize the image was not blurred but was instead two Hawks.  What a surprise, I had not seen the second Hawk but then again my field of view was very limited..