White-Tailed Kites Grappling

One of the reasons I love White Tailed Kites

Looking up from photographing the coyote (in a previous post) I saw a pair of kites, off in the distance flying close to each other. I focused my camera on them and began shooting. It was all happening so fast and the image in the viewfinder was so small I did not fully grasp what I was capturing. But here it is, a series of pictures with the two adult kites their talons locked together, spinning and falling toward earth.

Some people think they are fighting but I think that is unlikely. They have to maneuver in the air with one of them turning onto its back for them to engage. Seems more likely a mating ritual of some sort that involves the mutual consent and cooperation of both of them. Or, then again, maybe they are just having fun!

Continuing to spin about as they descend together.

And now coming closer to the ground you can see the distant horizon coming into view.

And now they are really low to the ground and just beginning to disengage. Later they were together again higher up, one rolling on its back as if inviting another go around. I didn't see them lock on again, but quite frankly I was thrilled, which is to say I was really, really happy, with what I had seen.

I just now read an article on white-tailed kites and the article called this behavior grappling and that it is most often done on the boarders of their territories. Apparently a mid air drawing of the boundary lines. But I have also heard is questioned as possibly play behavior. Shucks, I like the mating idea better. If anyone knows for sure what this behavior is I would love to hear from you.

Art Display At The Center For Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa

The Center for Spiritual Living Santa Rosa, has a wonderful program that encourages artist members to display their work. The work is hung in the Social Hall and typically has about twenty pieces hanging for two months at a time. On March 1rst I will be hanging several images taken in Iceland, along with some wildlife images, including foxes, coyotes, eagles and kites. I will also have some paintings by my mother and two of my own. I am pretty excited about this showing. One of the pictures I will have in the show is of Godafoss, a beautiful waterfall in Iceland. When I first saw pictures of this waterfall I knew I wanted to go to Iceland to take pictures of it. This composition required gettin into some very cold water.

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The Aurora Borealis, May 10, 2024

This last May, my wife, Jan, and I were on vacation in the San Juan Islands, WA. We were there for a week staying at the Trumpeter Inn, a B&B on San Juan Island. Mid way through our stay we heard there was to be a Northern Lights display and that we would likely be able to see it since we were at a latitude just north of Victoria, BC. The excitement was immediate. The conditions were just right as the sky was cloudless and the moon was in its crescent phase and would be low on the horizon (and therefore not overly bright) during the expected good viewing time between 10 pm and 2 am. The image above was taken that night and is what I was expecting to see, a green Aurora. Little did we know what was to come! Early on the was the first hint that something special was about to happen as color in addition to green began to show. I found this very exciting as I had seen green auroras before but never one with the purple/blue colors an...

Notes To My Mother

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