Harrier On Sauvie Island

It was a beautiful day...a little icy in the morning, but that quickly melted away. It was weird as the trees were "raining", and the sun was shining. It took a bit to melt that freezing rain that had built up on the trees.

Bob and I went for a drive out Skyline and ended up on a road called McManamee, which neither one of us had ever taken. It took us over the back hills onto Hwy 30 and Sauvie Island. We headed toward Coon Point, but got sidetracked in a field where there were 5-6 hawks and harriers. I was in heaven:))

I had discovered yesterday, while reading about my camera, that there are some special setting which work for flying wildlife...so I had set my camera for these when we left the house, but had stopped on West Union to check out the eagles, and then proceeded to reset the camera BACK to the old settings. So, when we got to Sauvie Island, I thought I had it set for flying objects, but alas....I DID NOT! So there were so many photos which would have been better, but I guess we learn by doing...some of us just are a little slow, ha!!!

We watched in delight as several harriers hunted in this field...catching what we thought were voles. I thought this photo above was one of the better ones...I just couldn't post the one with the poor little vole in "death grips"!

There were also red-tailed hawks...at one time we counted 4 on the ground, and there were those in the trees too! I've never seen it so busy!

For more photos from today, visit my flickr page.