View allAll Photos Tagged grayghost
I rarely see male Northern Harriers on the Sumas Prairie, so this is likely the same bird I saw last month.
I see female Northern Harriers occasionally, usually surprise fly-bys just above the vegetation, and always a challenge to photograph. But this is the elusive male, the "gray ghost", perched **nicely** back-lit against that afternoon sun - another challenge. I actually saw more males in my several days at Point Reyes National Seashore than females. And I could swear I saw this same one several times in the same area out the Pierce Ranch road - in fact, there were at least two breathtaking low close fly-bys across my windshield as I was creeping along in the car. Cool stuff.
The Gray Ghost variant of the Northern Harrier, taking off from a fence post along Twin Lakes Road in Big Meadows, Bridgeport California.
A full KCS lash up powers 247 as it races through Lake City around midnight. Leading the charge is KCSM AC4400CW 4548 which still wears it's as-applied TFM "Gray Ghost" paint scheme, albeit with KCSM markings
KCSM 4565 ("Grey Ghost" AC4400CW) leads a GP20C-ECO on CPKC 246, seen here on the approach to Tower B-17 in Bensenville, IL.
Whitewater Draw, Arizona
A male northern harrier scans the ground for prey at Whitewater Draw in southern Arizona.
KCS 4040 (SD70ACe) leads a CP SD60-3, a KCSM "Grey Ghost" AC4400CW, and another KCS SD70ACe on a four-locomotive CPKC 346 grain train, seen here passing through Des Plaines, IL.
KCSM 4542 ("Grey Ghost" AC4400CW) trundles toward Tower B-17 in Bensenville, IL with CPKC 248 in tow, while an American Airlines flight departs O'Hare International Airport overhead.
Gray ghost surprise!!
It's always good to wash your fruit in the morning. You may ask...."But why?".....The answer...because it means you're facing your big sliding glass doors and might spot something wonderful out in the open space behind your house. That's exactly what happened. I saw a hawk come swooping in and land right behind my fence. I assumed it was our resident red-tailed hawk.....but when I went over to look...it was flying away from me and I could see it had a white patch on top of it's tail which could only mean a Northern Harrier. However, what I didn't expect was that it was a MALE harrier or as many call it a Grey ghost!!! We have never seen a male harrier hunting behind our house. I made some inaudible sounds with my excitement.....grabbed my camera and bolted out of the back door. I really didn't expect it to hang around very long, and it didn't. It flew out of sight, but then back in sight, and then repeated this numerous times. Finally he started making some circles and made a few passes right in front of me. He also managed to fly with some very nice fall colors behind him in the distance. I will have a few more to share, but here are some of my favorites.
Nikon Z9 with Nikkor 180-600mm F5.6-6.3 lens at 600mm, 1/1600sec, F8, various ISO's from 360 to 720, handheld and cropped. (Please view images large for best details) Nov 16 2024 Northern Colorado
Northern harrier at Roosevelt Wetlands, Pinellas County, FL. Check out my blog at dinascitywildlife.com/
KCS 2016, a relatively rare "Grey Ghost" GP38-2, has taken up residence at Bensenville Yard and has been assigned to the I47 switch job, serving local industries in the Schaumburg area on T-Th and the Mars / Newlyweds plants on the Elgin / C&M Subs, respectively, on M-W-F.
Here, Wednesday's job heads east to switch out Mars, passing underneath the water tower in Elmwood Park, IL in the process.
Northern Harrier male who was sitting confidently on his favorite perch. Turns out favorite perch is just on the side of the trail, near the start of the trail, and I was dying to take a walk, so eventually I did walk past where he was ("on the far side of the trail" but it wasn't a wide trail) and he did take off, disgruntledly. He posed very well on his perch but in this direction, he was backlit, so I only ended up keeping one of the perching photos from this vantage. In that photo he was already starting to fluff his wings a bit, as he could tell I was coming close. ... Aha! Per Cornell, “Either the male or the female chooses the nest site, which is on the ground and usually in a dense clump of vegetation such as willows, grasses, sedges, reeds, bulrushes, and cattails.” He must be guarding a nest site. There was a female spending a lot of time near there as well.