I figured we can all use some lift by proxy at the end of this very week. So here are some birds in flight. Given my amateur equipment, it is hard to get far away, moving birds in focus, but I lucked out with at least some of these shots. They were collected over the last couple of years in my favorite haunts: Sauvie Island, Steigerwald Bird Sanctuary, Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge, Finley Refuge, Ankeny Refuge and Fernhill wetlands. All except Finley are less than an hour’s drive from Portland and none charges fees.

 

Flying today are geese, cranes, egrets, swans, hawks, ospreys and eagles. You might find it interesting – I certainly did – how eagles are put to work in our modern times. Rather than train them to hunt small pray, they are now made to hunt drones. One can imagine all kinds of applications….. and here we thought drug sniffing dogs were (custom)men’s best friend.

 

This next photograph was taken in pouring rain, a harrier hawk attacking a red tail hawk.  Fuzzy but quite the sight then and there.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/02/01/trained-eagle-destroys-drone-in-dutch-police-video/?utm_term=.1e5709a0d3cd