Another trip to Farmington Bay

I really enjoyed my trip to Farmington Bay last week, so Jasper and I loaded into the Honda and headed back. I was hoping that the cold weather and snow would have brought the bald eagles in, but that wasn't the case.  I did see three or four, but they were all a quarter mile away, out in the middle of the water.

The day would be split into two chunks, ducks and hawks. The first batch were Coots on the run.  They look so funny stomping along the water.

Then I went and found my favorite little Grebes.  They're just so cute.

I had just set up to shoot this group of five Grebes.  I had my eye to the camera...

... and suddenly all I saw was this.  Confused I looked up and saw that a big hawk had just flown over the reeds and the ducks instantly went under water, scrambling for safety.  Little ducks are tasty hawk food.

The nature center had a list of birds that were around during the year.  There were three types of owls, and I was interested in seeing any of them.  This was the only one I found.  His job was to scare the other birds off the tower he was perched on.

On to the hawks...  Most of what I saw were Harriers and Kestrels, but there was at least one Rough Legged Hawk.

This one was hovering for prey, right over the truck.  I shot this through the sun roof.  I was worried about shooting into the sun, but it actually provided some nice back lighting.

My best shots were of a Kestrel.  He was sitting on a power wire with his recently caught mouse.

I got this shot just as he was getting ready to take off.

And now for my sad moment.  I whine on my blog about not having a fast, long lens.  My dream for wildlife photography is the Nikon 500mm. Instead I use a 70-200mm zoom with a 2.0x teleconverter.   I shot this picture of two Harriers fighting in mid-air.  It was pretty dramatic, but I couldn't zoom in enough and the focus was off.  What a pisser.  This is one that could have won contests.