Young Harrier and the Ducks

The morning light has been beautiful and my search for a few close shots of the young Northern Harrier has been keeping me busy at the west end of the Rios trail in Solana Beach.

I finally got a chance to take a few shots of the young female Northern Harrier as she headed straight up the cliffs from where I was standing and flew overhead. Here are some shots of the beauty and some of the ducks that scrambled to take flight as she made her appearance.

Northern Harrier, Circus cyaneus measures 18 inches long with a wingspan of 43 inches. 

Notice her owl-like facial disc. 

She really looks owl-like in this shot. 

 

Her markings appear to show that she is a juvenile in that she has an orange body fading to whitish in color. She also has the dark-colored inner secondaries on her wings which ID her as a juvenile.

 I wonder if she is the young daughter of the resident female Northern Harrier.

What a beauty.

She passes by hugging the bank behind where I am standing. 

Now the sun is also to my back and she is back-lit by the light. 

The sun traces her outline in a beautiful glow. 

 

What a wonderful way to end another great birding year. A beautiful flyby of one of my favorite raptors. 

 

The sight of this raptor is breathtaking. I feel very lucky to have been in the right spot to catch a few of these images as she passes by. 

 

Eye to eye. 

 She flies up and I capture the condo windows in the background of this shot. 

She flies south and disappears behind some tall trees. 

But the ducks are all nervous and take flight. Here is a male Northern Pintail just coming out of the water as he pumps his wings to take flight. 

 

In the blink of an eye, he has propelled himself out of the water and is in flight. 

What a beautiful duck. 

 Showing his colors.

A male Northern Pintail and two female Pintails appear ready to take flight too.

 Off they go.

Another pair of Northern Pintails are taking flight. This photo captures the male lifting straight up from the water. 

You can see that this is a very muddy pond. The Pintail sprays quite a bit of mud as he jumps forward to take flight. His mate has opened her wings and is also ready to take off. 

And she pumps her wings once and is lifted out of the water. 

Showing his colors. 

A Green-winged Teal drake also gets anxious.

The take off.

Not only are they quick in the air but also fly in a zigzag pattern which makes it a little difficult to follow once he is in the air. 

Showing his colors.

With the Harrier out of sight, the Dowitchers return to the little pond by the peninsula and resume their feeding. It has been a wonderful morning and time for me to head for home. 

LOL... there is a Willet hidden in this photo, can you spot him?

Have a very Happy New Year everyone! Stay safe and see you next year!