Thursday, February 5, 2009

Snow Buntings!

A Hannibals Animals first--Snow Buntings!

I found these beautiful birds just after leaving the Snowy Owl on Saturday. What a great day it was! Bald Eagles, Snowy Owl, and Snow Buntings!

I blogged a week ago about field birds, the Horned Lark to be specific, and noted that the Snow Bunting was on my list to search out and photograph. This is what went down: After finding a flock and approaching at a slow creep, I managed to shoot a few frames, although it was really really windy that day. It looked as if the buntings walked sideways thru the fields, stumbling over the stubble, and having all sorts of trouble. The blowing gave them such grief that a few blew over and had to pick themselves back up. Not an easy day to be a Snow Bunting I guess, but am happy to have finally caught them.



These few photos were the only ones that turned out at all.



The buntings flew to a farm yard for what I am guessing, an easier time of walking and foraging.



trying to get flight shots proved quite difficult, but seeing their wing markings is worth a blurry photo.



Isn't it interesting that Snow Buntings have such a wide variety of color pattern variations.

4 comments:

Shelley said...

Yea - snow buntings! Beautiful! They really blend in w/ the landscape!

jalynn01 said...

I haven't seen this bird yet, but glad you did! Liked the flight wing markings alot! Thanks Hannibal.

Ruth's Photo Blog said...

You got some great shots,considering the nature of these birds.It seems they are always in motion.
Blessings,Ruth

Tina said...

You certainly did have a great day and we loved all your raptor, owl and bunting pictures! Thank you.
I have never had the pleasure of seeing a snow bunting YET but hopefully some day...just love all the colors you show in your bunting pics. would have never guessed that its wings were patterned!!