Snowy owls, Pheasant, Redpoll (20150307) Prep run with Kerri for next weekend

Kerri has some friends coming to visit the weekend of March 14 so she wanted to do a little recon work in the area where Tim, Jamie and I had a super day a couple of weeks ago (see the post here).  Kerri was working with a limited amount of time so we were just looking for a "taste" of what the area had to offer. Our first discovery was this rooster pheasant. Love the red-blue-green:)

We then found a pair of Grey Partridge, but none of my images turned out. While we had stopped to investigate a long distance object, we were getting ready to leave I spied this Horned Lark.

We found our first "White bird" right next to a large house that was for sale and grabbed our first images (more about that bird later). Our second bird was spotted several hundred yards from any access. They do shine like a beacon in the bright sun light.

Our next situation was this little Common Redpoll, which was with very few of its pals. There were probably only 6 birds in this small flock. Like the Lark this shot is pretty heavily back lit.

So now back to our target specie, the majestic Snowy. For some reason several of the birds we found on this day were located on poles with complex wiring in place. They usually like the simplicity of a single line wire pole. A portrait for you.

Our fourth bird of the day was happy just to soak in the rays on this glorious day.

Even our stop for gas produced a subject on this fine day. This might be one of my best House Sparrow images to date.

Back on the road and once again in search of our targets netted us this beautiful while owl. This bird was very cooperative, and allowed us to take our shots and move on.

Our sixth Snowy of the day was another ""long distance" bird as was number 7. Number 7 however was being harrassed by this raven. They flew for probably more than mile during this confrontation and got so far from us that we don't know how it was finally settled.

We next spotted a Bald Eagle but didn't end up stopping. I thought that I had spotted Doug M in a van but didn't stop to check it out. As it turns out we should have as he was getting shots of Chukars--birds that have never appeared here on the blog. Just behind Doug's van though we did find this GHO sitting on her nest. If you look to the left you can see that she has a little company.

I'll finish this post up with a shot of our first and last bird of the day. We found this bird in the same postion as 2.5 hours earlier in the day. It did a little "ruffle" that I was capture.

We boogied home and Kerri was happy with the outing. I am certain that she will be able to find a few of these gorgeous birds for her friends on the upcoming weekend. Do, like Kerri's guests are planning this week; put some wild in your life!
Turbo