Northern Harrier Taking Flight. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A northern harrier lifts its wings as it begins to take off from a fence post on a foggy morning.

We were slowly passing along a gravel road when we spotted this bird perched on a nearby fencepost. Most often when I approach birds like this one they don’t leave immediately — but many times they seem to get nervous and depart if I stop nearby. With that in mind we moved very slowly as we approached. We stopped some distance away and photographed. Then we moved a bit closer and photographed some more. Finally we stopped immediately parallel to the bird and continued to photograph. Somewhat to my surprise, the bird continued to stick around. (Don’t judge my distance from the bird by the photograph — I used a very long lens and have cropped from the original full image.)

We were very fortunate to have the opportunity to observe this beautiful bird up close for several minutes as it stuck around. It looked this way and that, preened a bit, but continued to stand on the pole. Often in a case like this I keep photographing since I know the bird won’t be there long. This time the darned thing posed long enough that I paused my photography. Finally, with little warning, the harrier took flight. Fortunately I already had it in my viewfinder, so I was able to capture this instant as the wings came up in preparation for flight.

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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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