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Ferruginous hawk
Ferruginous hawk
Prairie falcon
Great horned owl
Great horned owl
Red Shouldered hawk eating a snake
Red Shouldered hawk eating a snake
Red tailed hawk
12/2/12 - Prairie falcon; I hope you all are not getting tired of all these bird shots, but I did get a lot of them and there are quite a few that I like. I like this one because of the light through the tail feathers and the position of the hawk. The prairie falcon is a fairly small hawk. It captures its prey about 1/4 of the time on the ground. During the free fly, it actually caught something on the ground and had a sort of funny hopping action down there. I did not get any shots of that, as it was slightly behind some plants and I couldn't get a clear shot. The Sonoran Desert actually supports a wide variety of bird and animal life. In the desert around the museum, the vegetation is quite dense. The desert around our RV park, conversely, supports very sparse vegetation. Around the museum are a huge variety of cactii, lots of saguaro cactus, and trees like the palo verde, which performs photosynthesis in the branches and the trunk. This tree will only have leaves when rain has been more plentiful. There are also lots of different grasses and many other varieties of plants. Nearly every saguaro you see has holes in the trunk which serve as homes for many birds and aniimals. We saw an exhibit of saguaros of different ages and a three year old plant is only about an inch tall and about the same in diameter. They grow extremely slowly and can live a very long time. Thank you all so much for making my shot of the owl flying the number one shot for the day. That is three days in a row...a first for me, I think! There were so many other terrific shots on smugmug today, including many other wonderful bird shots. Thanks again! Hope you are having a great weekend!
Ferruginous hawk
Ferruginous hawk
Ferruginous hawk
See photo in original gallery.
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