On harriers, and shooting them (with a camera)

A Northern Harrier (Circus hudsonius) sits in a large field. There, see it? The lump in the center of the photograph. This species habitually roosts on the ground (and nests on the ground) and perched birds can blend well with the sere browned grasses of late fall and winter.

TAXONOMIC NOTE: The Northern Harrier was long considered to be conspecific with its Eurasian counterpart, the Hen Harrier. Plumage and morphology differences led to them being split into separate species recently. The Hen Harrier retains the scientific name Circus cyaneus, while the North American birds become C. hudsonius.

Harriers, from my experience, are generally not enamored with the presence of people. They typically remain well away from onlookers, although one might occasionally offer a brief flyby, usually while it's in transit to some other spot.

A female harrier harries voles. They're fun and interesting to watch, even from a distance. Northern Harriers on the hunt typically course low over the meadow, constantly watching the ground below. They're listening, too, for the sounds of rodents, even those concealed in their grassy raceways.

While even distant harriers are a visual treat, these are not the sorts of views that a photographer wants. In the case of the birds in the previous photos, even the largest lenses would not allow for the sort of cropping that would yield a tight high-quality image.

Over the years, I've had a few lucky encounters with Northern Harriers that resulted in decent photos. One of these experiences was remarkable. I was in my portable blind along the edge of a marsh, mostly angling for waterfowl. Suddenly a harrier appeared over a nearby ridge and headed my way. I got one or two shots off - one of which came out well - and the bird spotted me. I could not believe it. It's a camouflaged blind with a fairly narrow viewing port out the front with only the very end of the lens protruding. And the lens is also wrapped in camo. I'm back in the shadows of the interior, more or less invisible. Through the big lens I saw the bird make me, staring bullets right into my lens and immediately banking off and accelerating, not to be seen again.

My Jeep, parked on a beautiful but frigid morning at Killdeer Plains in north-central Ohio. Last Sunday, February 20, I resolved to spend a few hours really trying to work some harriers and make some good images. It was a beautiful morning with great light, and I arrived by dawn. The area that I went straight to must have a thriving Meadow Vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus) population this winter as numerous harriers and a few Rough-legged Hawks (Buteo lagopus) were in residence. The voles are their primary fodder.

But how to get near them? If I went out on foot, I knew what my odds of close encounters would be, and they wouldn't be good. Although it always makes me feel a bit lazy, vehicles can make great blinds and that's the tactic that I went with. This particular spot has a scruffy maple with some underbrush around it, and I wedged the Jeep up against that. The idea being that the vegetation would help make my vehicle less conspicuous and thus perhaps less worrisome, although I had no illusions about the birds not seeing it from a mile away.

At times, up to eight harriers were in view at once, although none immediately offered the sorts of close-range flybys I was hoping for. After the first hour I was getting a bit nippy. You don't want the engine running while doing this sort of thing as the raptors will hear it, and heat from the motor can distort images shot from the vehicle. Plus, the window is down.

Finally! A gorgeous female Northern Harrier winged by only a stone's throw away, allowing for superb frames without extreme cropping. Note how she carefully watches the ground, ever alert for mammalian opportunities. This was exactly the situation that I was hoping for. I think it just took an hour or so before the birds decided the vehicle wasn't a threat and began to ignore it.

As an aside, I got lucky in that only one other vehicle showed up during my time there and the occupant was also photographing birds. Whoever it was came my way at one point, but apparently realized that I was also shooting and quickly turned and went the other way. Great photographic manners by whoever that was, and I was most appreciative. Most people will just drive right up and want to chat or pull up 15 feet away and just sit there. This, needless to say, scuttles any hope of accomplishing an objective like shooting spooky harriers. Sometimes wildlife photography must be an anti-social activity :-) And the early bird gets the worm. Later in the day (when the light would not have been nearly as good) there would have been many more people and I probably could not have done this without interruption. As it was, I was done shooting by 10 am and headed for home.

Another female harrier soon made a close pass, allowing me another volley of photos. And then she detected a vole straight out from my position and made several pounces. In this shot she's just lifted from the ground, tail askew and legs dangling. Check out those formidable talons! What a shot this would have been if she had bagged the vole and it was clutched in her talons. That was probably too much to hope for but someday...

Photographic notes: These images were made with the Canon R5, their newest iteration of mirrorless camera. I cannot say enough good things about this unit. It bursts at 20 frames a second, which is fantastic for birds, especially birds in flight. I am always looking for subtleties of head angle and body posture, and these things happen so rapidly that there is no way you can wait and just shoot at the precise moment. High speed bursts greatly increase the odds of catching interesting postures. The image quality is also excellent. Perhaps best, at least for birds, is the remarkable intelligent autofocus tracking system. The camera recognizes eyes, and remains locked on them, even on a bird in flight. I had my first serious run with this camera last October in Cape May, New Jersey, and was stupefied how the camera could lock on the HEADS of flying Monarch butterflies in flight and stay locked on them as long as I did my job and kept the butterfly in the frame. As long as there is not lots of close background distractions, this system works superbly on flying birds - much easier than butterflies in flight! - and the photog's keeper rate should skyrocket. Ironically, I did not use intelligent autofocus for these harrier shots. Because the birds fly so low to the ground, the camera kept trying to grab grasses and other plants. I switched to center point focus with the adjacent focus points selected. This small focus block worked much better in this case and was quite good at grabbing the bird and staying locked on it. I also recently acquired the Canon 400 DO II lens and it in combination with this camera is an absolutely deadly combo for shooting birds. The lens has an f/4 maximum aperture, focuses with lightning speed, is ultra-light and easily hand-holdable, and the image quality is superb. More often than not, I use it with the Canon 1.4x III extender, which makes it a 560mm f/5.6 lens. I notice little or no deterioration of image quality, nor a slowing of focus speed.

As always, click the photo to enlarge

This is one shot that I really hoped to get, and why it's necessary to be close to the subject. Although a fair bit of cropping was required to create this perspective, the file size is still large enough (5 meg TIFF) that it is publishable. Enlarge the image to judge the sharpness for yourself (and as all images are on here, this is a greatly compressed jpeg).

Northern Harriers have distinctly owl-like facial disks, an adaptation to increase their hearing acuity. After much time spent watching them hunt, I believe they find prey as much if not more so by sound than sight. Meadow Voles - probably the main prey at this site and in many other areas - create grassy tunnels or "runways". Sort of like the subterranean tunnels made by moles, but above ground in the grasses. While the voles occasionally pop out, mostly they work from within the tunnels. Out of sight, perhaps, but not out of earshot to a bird that hears as well as a harrier.

Many times, including several times on this day, I have seen harriers pounce, pop back in the air, move slightly, and pounce again, sometimes over and over. Oftentimes they lift with grasses caught in their talons. I think they are tracking the vole totally by ear as it moves in the runway and pouncing on it sight unseen, trying to pluck the wee beast from its grassy tunnel. And oftentimes the harrier is successful. Someday, I will get that vole in talons harrier shot!