American Pelicans

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Kent Jarrett

You never really know what you might find when you stalk the banks of the mighty Mississippi. During one of my recent eagle trips I was pleasantly please when a group of eight American White Pelicans showed up.

I was like “cool” I dont have any full frame in flight white pelican shots. It wasn’t until I watched them devour every fish that was near the lock, and the eagles all left the area to roost in the trees. (bummer)!

Lots of people take their dogs on walks around Smith Island, just North of the Lock & Dam 14. I was getting the eye from this Bettendorf Bulldog!

with several days of sub zero tempatures, I am lookign forward to field testing new gear this weekend. I picked up a 7D mark ii paired with the new 100-400 IS mark ii. I will be doing a detailed review on this blog as soon as I get enough field time for an honest review.

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Thanks for stopping by, Life is good, and I am blessed!
Kent

In Flight Collision!

Posted on January 4, 2015 by Kent Jarrett

Until today I had always thought that hummingbirds were the only birds that can fly backwards or upside down.

Today at Lock and Dam 14 on the Mississippi River I witnessed and documented an in air collision between two adult eagles. I have been trying to get a full frame talon to talon grab, this was really close and maybe more rare.

Two eagles were circling looking for fish forgot to check their airspace and ran into each other. The impact completely rolled the top eagle over in mid air. He went into a free fall before he could right himself and then continued on with his day of fishing.

Even though I clipped some wings in the series, still pretty cool!

Thanks for stopping by, Life is good, and I am blessed!
Kent

Snowy Owls of Central Illinois

Posted on January 3, 2015 by Kent Jarrett

My good friends and fellow photographers Rick Small, Brian Shults out in the Smoky Mountains name the big whitetail bucks. Faye Sykes and Bill Lea name most of the known black bears. Only fitting since I don’t have a national park in my backyard I try and name a few of my “finds”.

Now that I have spend more time with my snowy owls they have unique features and behaviors and have decided I would name the Snowy Owls of Central Illinois.

Meet LP Paulie:Sorry for the heavy crop but it is the only usable image of Paulie I have. Paulie is the most famous of our central Illinois Owls and has been hanging around El Paso for going on 3 weeks. He hangs out in the MIDDLE of two larges squares and I have yet to catch him closer a road than a third of a mile. Paulie is a second year young male. He doesn’t even like cars to stop let alone when people get out of their cars. Please respect these owls and stay in your cars and use spotting scopes and binoculars!

I have chatted with the two landowners where Paulie hangs out. They have found half eaten rabbits, all kinds of dead birds, and owl pellets everywhere. Paulie is healthy, strong and growing! Please let’s keep it that way.

Which brings me to MC Beauty:

We lost a young man this summer to a drunk driver. Michael Collins, in honor of him a group has started #MCStrong. To go along with that and to honor him, and because this bird is somewhere in McLean County; I have named this male snowy owl MC Beauty.

After talking with several farmers in the area this is Beauty’s third winter in our area. The local birders and photographers have sworn to try and keep Beauty off of eBird and so far, knock on wood we have. Beauty is used to cars and farm machines. As long as you stay in your cars you will be able to enjoy him at a much closer distance. Beauty is a 3 year Male. Next year he should be completely white!

There are two more female owls hanging out near Minonk. I believe one of them to be a returning female from last year after talking to my bird guys that drives 90-100 miles a day birding. I just have been having too much fun with my eagles and these two owls to drive farther North to photograph the Minonk Owls.

Barbie:

Barbie is a first year female snowy owl. I named her Barbie because the dark feathers on the females are called barring or barred.

I was a little disappoint to learn that last season’s Snowy Owls in Lee County didn’t just happen. Let me try to explain. The Illinois Department Of Natural Resources captured over 30 Snowy owls from O’Hare and Mid Way airports and moved them a safe distance to Lee County. I thought this was the first good flat open land with plenty of feed and they just stopped there. Wrong they were planted!

Rainy and crappy light today, and yet I feel compelled to go check on Paulie and Beauty. Tomorrow back on Eagles, Monday back to work.

Thanks for stopping by, Life is good, and I am blessed!
Kent

The Aging of Bald Eagles

Posted on January 1, 2015 by Kent Jarrett

I was asked today at Lock and Dam 14, how I could tell the age of the different eagles. Today there was a 4th year bird that was very active. I call the four year olds a dirty bird (They don’t sell well).

The Bald Eagle that most everyone can identify is the adult. This bird is described as: large size; bright white head, neck and tail: dark brown body and wings; and bright yellow bill. It takes 5 years to reach this plumage.

The 1st year bird is a very dark bird. The body of this bird is two shades of brown; darker on the breast and lighter brown on the lower body. There is no whitish triangle on the back, the upper wings are two toned brown and the bill is dark. The head is dark as well.

First Year Bird: PBKJ6687-FrameShop

Second Year Bird:

PBKJ6180-FrameShop

The 2nd and 3rd year birds look different from the 4th year. The belly shows white marks. There will also be dramatic white patches that appear in the wing-pits. The whitish triangle often appears on the upper back of the bird and the top of the head is often whitish. All of these markings appear on the 2nd and 3rd year bird, but a way to tell the difference between a 2nd and 3rd year bird is the tail feathers. The 3rd year birds have all but maybe 1 of the flight feathers that are the same length…giving the trailing edge a smooth or regular look. The 2nd year birds only have about half of the flight feathers are longer than the others…this gives the appearance of ragged or irregular feathers.

Third Year Bird:Fourth Year Bird: (The Dirty Bird):

Fifth year and older Bird:

Eagles are now living to 20 to 25 years of age in the wilds. (Yeah!)

Thanks for stopping by, Life is good, and I am blessed!
Kent

Lock and Dam 14 Eagle Counts

Posted on December 31, 2014 by Kent Jarrett

As the temperatures drop, the eagle counts and action goes up along the Big Muddy! This set of photos were shot at Lock and Dam 14 on the Mississippi River from the Iowa side. Lot of us photographers that still work for a living get to pretend we were retired the week between Christmas and New Years.

My humble offerings from yesterday 12/30/2015

1) Stop and Go Eagle
2) Locked on3) One footer4) little backlit5) Head On!6) Anybody up there?7) Stretch it out8) Bank Left9) Juvi