A wonderful morning at the Pole Farm, harrier hotspot

I wrote recently about days when photo opportunities are few. As if to restore balance to the universe, Mother Nature smiled on me today with good morning light and encounters with a couple of photogenic birds.

Knowing that time was limited “because work,” I took the quickest route to the closest place, the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm. As I approached the drive to the parking lot, I spotted a large bird landing on some of the overhead wires that run parallel to Keefe Road. It was a red-shouldered hawk, almost certainly the same one I’d seen near that spot a few days ago.

I stopped the car, hopped out, grabbed my camera and braced myself on the roof rack of my Subaru. The bird was initially facing away from me into what little sun there was, then did a 180-degree turn in my direction. That afforded me a chance to get a few profile shots.

I got back in the car, parked in the lot and began making my way up the central path. I’d gone maybe 1/5th of a mile, logging the hawk and a few crows in my e-Bird app. I looked up from my iPhone and was surprised to see a Northern harrier on the path about 30 yards ahead of me. As soon as I went for my camera, the bird took off and flew ahead.

That may have been my best shot at a shot of the bird, I thought, but I got lucky. The sun shone more brightly, and I walked farther up the path, spotting the harrier on the right edge. As I advanced, she took off once more and landed even farther up the trail.

I took a look through my binoculars at the dark blob by the edge of the grass and was startled to see a white ring around the bird’s neck. It wasn’t the harrier, which was a little way away, but a ring-necked pheasant. That was the day’s bonus bird, which soon disappeared into the grass.

Creeping up slowly, I got a few shots of the harrier sitting on the ground. She would only tolerate my presence for a short while and took off again to fly over the fields. To my delight, she flew back closer to me, enabling me to get a few more shots, and I have to say I am happy with them.

On so many days, I see harriers at the Pole Farm or on the Reed-Bryan Farm side of Mercer Meadows, but they typically stay out of range of my camera or the light is poor. While in the field, I’m never sure how sharp and clear the images are, but once I loaded the card on my laptop at home, I knew I’d had a pretty good day. I’m happy to share these images with you.