Being in the Right Place at the Right Time

Jan 27 2014 Sumas Prairie
With the wonderful weather coming to a close my birding buddy Raymond and myself took off to nearby Sumas Prairie to find the Gyrfalcon and whatever other birds presented themselves.
Taking Whatcom Road east at Vye it wasn't long before we came across an American Kestrel hunting among the blueberry fields. Within ten minutes the tiny raptor had caught a quite large rodent that looked like a small rat, it was far too big for a mouse or vole.
As luck would have it, the bird at first flew away with its prize only to make an abrupt turn and fly toward us and land on a pole about 30 metres away. It was an exiting moment and more than we expected and we had been birding all of ten minutes.
Here is one of the resulting shots.

Female American Kestrel (Falco sparverius)

         Later in the morning we came across this male waiting to pounce on some hapless rodent

American Kestrel. We saw five females and only this one male. 

Below is my first ever photograph of the Harlen's Red-tailed Hawk. Note lack of red tail associated with the normal population.

Harlen's Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)

A Harlan's glides over the fallow fields of Sumas Prairie.

Yet another great day of birding, full of surprises and new experiences. The Harlan's was a bird I had never seen before so with a change of weather I can now spend the next few days catching up with all or some of the minutiae that gets in the way of my birding adventures.

Good Birding

   John