Birding while communting

[Maestro]

My commute to work is about 55 minutes. I live 35 miles (55 km) from my job. My wife and I carpool because she works at the school just behind my school. She's Jr. High and I am elementary. Anyhow, I bring my camera along for the ride because quite often we see many birds together. Most of the birds are common, incredibly abundant species. But sometimes there are some birds worthy of a quick shutter click. These are by no means "wow" photographs, but it just goes to show that if you open your eyes a bit it is amazing what you see (preaching to the choir here, I know. Many of you already have that "eye", if not for birds, it is for something else artistic. ;) )

Belted Kingfisher with a lot of noise removed since I shot it @ISO 800 because of low light.







Any raptor, however common, is a good shot for me! ;)

Red tailed hawk at dawn


Red tailed hawk looking over busy freeway into the median for voles, reptiles and field mice.


Black Vulture just staring


All in all we saw three red tailed hawks, one Cooper's, a huge kettles of turkey and black vultures, many scissor-tailed flycatchers, house sparrows, lark sparrows, mourning doves, more rat-birds, er, I mean pigeons that I could count, Great Egrets, Cattle Egrets, grackles, starlings, cowbirds and probably more.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear Maestro!

Oh, these are wonderful!

Especially when you consider that you were on your way to work...

I love your Red Tailed Hawk!

I am suddenly very glad that I'm not his breakfast...:scared:

:hi:

[Maestro]

4. Don't worry too much about the Red Tailed Hawk

If you don't look like a reptile or have big ears like a few rabbits I know, you're fine, but I am not sure about some of the Faux News "journalists." ;)

[XemaSab]

2. These are beautiful pictures!

I am really impressed! :bounce:

[Maestro]

8. Thanks Xemasab.

There was too much noise in the belted kingfisher pics. I plan to try to get some better more natural pics of kingfishers when I visit the Texas Hill Country this fall. I also plan on tracking down the bald eagles again and getting better pics than last year's weather debacle I was in.

[Haole Girl]

3. Beautiful!

My favorite is the one taken at dawn. It reminds me of that scene in Gone with the Wind (which was actually shot at dawn-- not dusk, as many think).

Thank you for sharing those with us! :-)

[Maestro]

6. Thanks KC2

It's just what the Metroplex has to offer among other things. :hi:

[TZ]

5. You should have this bumper sticker on your car..

"Warning: Birder on Board-Frequent Stops". The professor in college that got me interested in birding had it and it was sooo accurate for him!:)
Seriously, beautiful photos as usual. I envy you. Sometimes I will see a red-tailed hawk sitting on a pole but even though I live near a state park, that's usually it (although one really early morning what looked like a pileated woodpecker flew over me...)

[Maestro]

10. Hahahaha!

You are so right! I need to have that done. Thanks for commenting. :hi:

[XemaSab]

15. I saw a handmade sign in Arizona that said "Warning: this vehicle stops for birds

ONLY!" :D

[Maestro]

18. That is funny!

Really I need to have something that says something along the lines of "Birding while commuting" and "Frequent stops for wildlife and kids" although kids and wildlife could be synonymous. ;)

[BrklynLiberal]

7. Fantastic pictures!!!!!!

[Maestro]

9. Thanks BrklynLiberal!

It's hard to fit in time to bird so I take my camera pretty much everywhere! :hi:

[BrklynLiberal]

13. I live along a migration route and see lots of wonderful birds, but I could never

take such incredible pics.
Your shot of the hawk was breathtaking.
There are hawks, cardinals, bluejays, crows, and many, many more...
Unless they are close to my window, I cannot get a shot.



BTW, have you ever checked out the PaleMale website. There is a red tale hawk that has been nesting with his mates in the skycrapers of Manhattan for years.
www.palemale.com
Some incredible photos there.
There are archives with pics over the years, and of all the creatures around Central Park.

[Maestro]

14. Wow. That person has some incredible

images of the red tailed hawk there! Fantastic and thanks for sharing. It's look like you have some sort of finch in your first pic and of course a beautiful cardinal in the second.

[tigereye]

11. that kingfisher is a cutie!

I have never seen one of those.


What a nice way to commute!

[Maestro]

12. Couldn't be more urban a commute!

But the avifauna don't seem to mind. Granted though, birding down in the Texas Hill Country or in the Lower Rio Grande Valley is better. Thanks for commenting.

[mtnester]

23. We have a first time ever visitor to our farm pond this season, and he

WON the kingfisher battle...a green heron. He has been a delight to watch, however, he pretty much drove away the resident kingfisher.

NOW..my dream is to see an eagle, in the wild, in a tree by the road...my hubby and I have a bet running on who will see one first...here in central Ohio, it is a matter of time....and YES, if I see an eagle perched on a huge ass post along side the road, you bet your BUTT I am stopping and whipping out my camera.

Now then, let me tell you about which neighborhood birds are the fiercest, and who hangs back when a hawk happens to fly in for a visit. :)

[Maestro]

25. Yeah, green herons can be quite fierce when it comes to food.

I have seen them but yet to get a picture of one. I saw my first Bald Eagle in the wild this past Jan. I got some pics but it was drizzling freezing rain when I saw it so the pic aren't that great. I plan to go back to the same place this year in the late fall to see the pair again, hoping they return. They pair has returned for the past three years.

[pitohui]

16. very nicely done! EOM

.

[Maestro]

20. Thanks

:hi:

[Skittles]

17. ME ME MAESTRO I DO THAT!!!

there's one hawk I look for every day who hangs out on top of a really tall lamp post on a busy street checking for his snacks. I live in the DFW metroplex and city birds crack me up - I see them darting in and out of the traffic catching grasshoppers - yes INDEED

[Maestro]

19. Well Skittles! I didn't know we were neighbors!

The hawk I photographed was looking over Loop 12 near Jefferson Ave. on the Grand Prairie, Dallas border in Soutwest Dallas county near the DFW National Cementary! :hi:

[AllegroRondo]

21. Awesome work

I have a one hour commute, and sometimes get distracted looking at the birds. Saw a belted kingfisher this spring, lots of hawks and vultures, and theres always great blue herons hanging around by the Missouri river.

A couple years ago, I had an owl fly right over the hood of my car as I left our subdivision. Made my day.

[Maestro]

22. I so much would love to get some pics of owls.

There is a screech owl that lives very near my property but I can only hear it at night. I never see it in the day. A barn owl was also in my yard about 2 years ago in the evening, but no other owls are to be seen.

[AllegroRondo]

24. At our previous house

we had an owl that would fly over every night at sunset, right over our porch and into the woods across the street. we would just sit out there and wait for him sometimes.