From a distance

Even though Esa was at work again today and looking as adorable as ever, I decided I should probably take a break from doggie photos, at least for one day. Of course, it helped that on my drive in this morning I not only saw some hawks circling as they made their way up a thermal but also happened to be near a spot where I could pull completely off the road, giving me a chance to take some shots while they were still fairly low to the ground:



As you can see, the distance and the angle of the sun meant a lack of the kind of details, like coloring, that would help me identify what kind of birds they were. Which I didn't really mind, myself—I find the silhouette of a raptor against the sky to be pretty evocative all on its own. But out of curiosity I compared what I'd photographed against the different flight shapes pictured in my Sibley guide, and the Harrier Hawk appeared to be the closest match. However, if someone looking at these pictures has reason to believe otherwise, please don't hesitate to chime in:







Although I spotted at least four hawks before they flew out of sight, I only managed to get three in the same frame:



After work today I made a quick trip over to Bennington. I opted for Route 7A, the same road I take going to Whimsy Pond and Clear Brook Farm, because it's a bit more scenic and less traveled than Route 7. In fact, you may recall that waaaaay back in March I was on Route 7A when I took a photo of hay rolls in a snowy field; the original post is here. Today I saw something else to photograph when I got to that same field:



The deer didn't stick around after I got out of the car; in fact, the above photo is the only one it's in. But the wild turkeys, all females, lingered for a bit—probably because I knew the only way they would stay was if I kept a lot of field between me and them. And while I didn't realize it at first, I did eventually notice that these hens were accompanied by several poults as they worked their way across the field. In this shot, there's a fairly decent view of one next to the adult bird on the left:



Generally speaking, though, the tall grass and weeds did an excellent job of hiding the young 'uns; I can sorta see a couple of them between the two birds on the right, but only because I know to look for them:



A few more poults are visible in this photo, especially the one that decided to stretch its wings for a moment—that'd be the brown blob between the hen in the center and the one on the right:



Then again, the adults can be mighty hard to spot at times as well. Even though I knew there were four hens in this shot when I downloaded it, it still took me a moment or two to pick out the second one from the right when I was going through the images:



Anyway, it was fun to have a chance to photograph some wild turkeys—especially as it meant I'd have something completely new to share this time around. And at this point in my little project here, that's become a bit of a rarity. ;)