A raptor perched on an old house.
I had a beautiful encounter with a snowy owl on a barren hilltop near Namaka on Family Day. That was preceded by a mutual fascination that this juvenile prairie falcon and I shared for a long-abandoned house on the prairies.
I was driving the backroads after sunrise primarily to look for snowies. I like these drives on the winter prairie as the views are expansive and I always hope to see something unexpected. I had not visited this worn out farmstead before and I stopped to have a look. It was -27°C so I was content to take a couple of pictures out of the rolled down window – until I spied the falcon perched on the peak of the roof. Then I got out and walked slowly closer.
After 15 minutes, I was set up beside one of the sheds a little ways off from the main house. The falcon watched me approach but was more interested in scanning the field to the east. I kept my lens trained on the roof for a few more minutes until the bird launched.
It flew over the field and out of my view. I trudged back – it always seems farther and colder when returning from an encounter than it was getting there. My hands were happy to get out of the wind and I was happy to have some nice images of this beautiful, hardy bird.
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Prairie Falcon over… the prairies
Canon 5DIII + 500mm f/4 lens: 1/6400 of a second at f/6.3 on ISO 800
When I was waiting for my new owl friends to provide a beautiful through-the-window moment, my tripod and I were set up out the open on the snow-covered field that surrounds the barn. I was not expecting any other wildlife to swing by given my foreign presence but this Prairie Falcon (Falco mexicanus) must have taken pity on me.
Canon 5DIII + 500mm f/4 lens: 1/6400 of a second at f/6.3 on ISO 800
More likely, it was scanning the ground for dinner and the sun’s low altitude in the evening kept it from looking in my direction until it was pretty close. I was happy to see this hunter though as the light was beautiful and the bird even more so.
Canon 5DIII + 500mm f/4 lens: 1/6400 of a second at f/4 on ISO 200
It was a very pleasant surprise when I ran across another one of these beautiful birds (maybe the same one) when I returned to that same area a couple of days later. Well we didn’t really run into each other – I was driving and the bird was flying around a grain silo. It circled around me twice which gave me a moment to get out of my car and track it a bit easier.
Christopher Martin Photography 