First post on my new blog : D

Finally!!!!, originally uploaded by DMarcumPhotography.

Ok, so I posted this photo as a test to see how it worked. For some reason the photo uploading tool is a black window for me on my Macbook, so I am adding photos to this blog through Flickr.

This is a good story anyway! Last Thursday, I went out to Cuyahoga Valley N.P. with my friend Brit. We were hoping to see some birds, and just take in the beautiful Winter scenery along the Cuyahoga River. While hiking on the towpath just North of Peninsula, I spotted this Red-tailed Hawk near the river through the trees. I grabbed Brit and told her what I saw and that we needed to act casual and try not to scare him off. As I hooked up my monster lens on my Nikon, I was thinking that this guy would fly off at any second.

My general technique to approaching wildlife (especially birds) is to try to act like a carefree herbivore who is browsing the vegetation. Sometimes it seems to work, other times not so effective. Anyway, I took a few crappy shots of this bird from far away through twigs and we started towards the river to get a bit of a closer view that was unobstructed by trees. Surprisingly, this particular hawk was very tolerant of us being there...we ended up watching him from about 100ft. for a good 20 minutes while he just minded his own business and scanned the area for prey.

Before we moved on I got the photo posted above from just 50ft. away! What a cooperative subject!! Any wildlife photographer knows that this kind of thing is a rare and fortunate experience! I told Brit not to expect this kind of thing to ever happen while watching raptors in the wild, it must have been beginners luck for one of her first birding excursions : )

We hiked about 4 miles total through the crunchy snow on the towpath that day. A couple other noteable sitings included 2 adult Bald Eagles, a couple Great Blue Herons, and a small flock of Eastern Bluebirds. I can't wait until the snow clears off and I'll be back on my bike exploring the towpath : )