Landing Red-tailed Hawk

I haven’t often succeeded in photographing a landing raptor.  When they take off they usually don’t come back and when they do it’s often difficult to maintain focus on them as they land because of close backgrounds.  However, this immature Red-tailed Hawk gave me just such an opportunity a couple of days ago.

 

 1/2000, f 7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4

It was hunting from a huge rock outcropping and looking down over the valley in the background of this image.  I spent quite a while with this bird but it was side lit and I wasn’t very optimistic about getting a decent take-off shot because I expected it to spot potential prey in the valley below and take off away from me, giving me butt shots only.

 

 

  1/1600, f 7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4

Which is exactly what happened.

However, I saw where the bird landed far below in the valley, missed the prey and took off again so I wondered if I could be lucky enough for it to return to the same perch.  I wasn’t particularly optimistic because I was so close to the rock (you’ll notice from my techs that I had even removed my tc).  The problem was that as soon as the hawk took off from that distant perch it disappeared behind the same massive rock outcropping on the side of the mountain that had been its perch and if it did return I wouldn’t know it until the very last split second, as it flared up to land on the rock from behind and below it.

So I prefocussed on the likely spot on the rock where it might land and waited.  And waited.  For what seemed like forever.  I almost gave up because it took so long and I figured it had already landed somewhere else far below and behind the rock outcropping, where I couldn’t see it.

 

 

   1/1600, f 7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4

And then boom, there it was filling my frame.  This shot, which could have been the most dramatic, was ruined because the sidelight put no light on the face or eye – just another candidate for the trash bin except for possible use in explanatory blog posts like this one.

 

 

   1/1600, f 7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4

 But I liked the next image pretty well because of the light on the face, the wing position and the almost three dimensional look of the wings provided by their cupped curvature.

 

 

   1/1600, f 7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4

And I think this next shot in the burst turned out well also.  I do wish there wasn’t so much whitewash on the rock, but hey – birds do have to poop occasionally…

 

 

Perhaps this last shot of the rock outcrop (taken this morning) will give you some idea of the setting and the challenge I was facing.  The rock is high on the side of the mountain looking down over a small valley.  You’ll get a bettter feeling for depth and height by noticing the road I used to get up here in the lower right corner of the frame.  The red “X” above the road marks the approximate spot where the hawk landed and then took off to the left behind the outcropping.

Usually when I attempt to photograph a landing raptor I can see it coming in through my peripheral vision or other eye.  This blind approach of the bird was a new and interesting experience for me so I thought I’d describe it here.

Many (if not most) images of landing raptors have been baited, something I won’t do for ethical reasons, so I was happy to get these two shots – despite all the whitewash…

Ron