Northern Harrier

I've been to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in northern Utah several times and have become familiar with posts of the Bear River Blogger whom my daughter Rachael alerted me to. He had a recent post titled "Portrait of a Northern Harrier" where he described the northern harrier as his "nemesis bird," the bird he can never get a good photo of, no matter how many times he tries. As the title to the post hints, he finally did get good photos of a northern harrier. 

I have done a post on the northern harrier, but have also had a hard time getting good photos of them. Just recently I got some good photos at the IRWD San Joaquin Marsh in Irvine and Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach. 

Some of the photos follow:

The only decent photo I've gotten of a northern harrier perched. This was at the San Joaquin Marsh. 

I went back two days later and got photos of a northern harrier flying. 

Then I went to Bolsa Chica and got some great shots of a northern harrier flying. 

There is this weird sense of "knowing" when you have a bird that seems elusive and difficult to find and get close to, then you have a break-through experience of close observation and your whole way of viewing the bird changes. That happened to me with the northern harriers I photographed above.