When we first spotted this Sharp Shinned Hawk they had their back to us and appeared to finishing a meal. After watching for awhile we were treated with a nice view of this wonderful looking bird. Photographed north of Walden, CO.
When we first spotted this Sharp Shinned Hawk they had their back to us and appeared to finishing a meal. After watching for awhile we were treated with a nice view of this wonderful looking bird. Photographed north of Walden, CO.
nature has no boss 
Love the details of the feathers and the clarity of the eye. Nice shot!
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Thanks Kathy, she was a beautiful bird. Hope your weekend is going well.
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What a stunning photo, love it.
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Thanks and sorry for the delayed feedback this post somehow slipped by me.
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No worries and no need to apologize.
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Thanks.
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Hi Mike-
Your sharpie is a female merlin! What a treat to have been able to watch her behavior for awhile.
Thank you for your wonderful daily blog!
Cindy Whidbey Island, WA
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Hi Cindy and thanks for your feedback and setting us straight on the bird ID here. We really appreciate it.
Also sorry for the delayed response as replying to the comments from this post slipped by me.
I spent quite a bit of time looking through photos of sharp-shinned hawks trying to ID this bird correctly and a merlin never came -up. After reading about eye-color we have to agree this is a Merlin and for us the first we have ever seen. So thanks for clueing us in.
Hope your weekend isn going well and your summer as well. Whidbey Island must be a gret place to live.
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Wow what an awesome capture of this magnificent bird! I’ve never seen one.
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Whether it’s a sharp shinned hawk or a Merlin, it’s still marvelous and I’ve never seen either one!
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Hi and us as well especially since it does appear to be a Merlin. Hope your having a great day and sorry for the delayed response on they pst. Somehow these comments slipped of my radar screen.
hope your weekend is nitrating you well.
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Lovely capture! They are so cute.
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Beautiful bird for sure.
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I really enjoy your pictures. Thank you. I get them every morning in my email & it’s a nice way to start my day 🙂
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Hi and thanks for the kind words on the blog. Your comments really brighten our day as well. Sorry for the delayed response here as somehow the comments for this post just slipped off my radar screen.
Hope your day and weekend are treating you well.
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Amazing photo
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Thanks Keith, we really appreciate the feedback and sorry for the tardy response to this comment as this posts comments just slipped off my radar screen.
Hope your day is treating you well.
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Beautiful shot!
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Thanks.
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What a beauty – excellent capture, Mike!
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Hi Eliza and thanks and sorry for the delay in responding to this post as these comments slipped off my radar screen for a bit. Hope your weekend is treating you well and you are able to keep up with your garden which looks to be growing well.
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Thanks, Mike, the weather has been great for gardening and I’m trying my best to keep up with the garden. 🙂 All we need is a bit of rain.
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Hope you get some rain. We had a massive hail storm this week which sadly to say pretty much wiped out the veggies and fruits for the year and stressed the trees and perennials quite a bit. Massive piles of leaf debris. So it will be a summer of recovery for the landscape and trips to the farmers markets for us.
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Sorry about your garden. Hopefully, the farmers won’t have the same issues.
There was a lot of hype about t-storms and heavy rain this pm, but the storm moved to the north and south of us. 😦 So discouraging, we really need rain!
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Hi Eliza, every time we get one of these storms it makes me wonder how farmers can do it. So much unpredictability involved and so much out of your control. I give thanks to them every meal.
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Amen to that. Have a good Fourth.
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It was good, hot but good.
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Like the way the main image is sharp against the sky. double sharp! Nice
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Thanks, yes we used a shallow depth of field for this on as it was a bit dark out and getting that fast shutter speed was needed due to the wind moving this guy just a little bit.
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My favorite way to take pictures of birds – shallow depth of field with lots of detail on the subject, and a totally blurred out background! Pretty picture – thanks Mike!
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Hi and we also like the shallow DOF for the birds. The blurred out background makes it very much a portrait and the bird is indeed the star of the show. Sorry for the delayed response to this comments as well. The comments form this post seemed to slip of my radar screen for a bit. hope your weekend is treating you well.
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