This dark morph Red-tailed Hawk in Montana’s Centennial Valley was the most cooperative raptor of the day yesterday and it truly did have the patience of Job with what must have been a very annoying Black-billed Magpie.
1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, processed on the road from a laptop, not baited, set up or called in
When the hawk landed on a large post with a vole with the intention of enjoying its meal in peace the magpie had other ideas and harassed the hawk mercilessly during the entire feeding process (I’ll likely post images of that interaction sometime soon) .
The hawk ignored the persistent corvid perched within inches of its face and then took off when it had finished its meal. I was able to get a few shots off as it did so and this is one of them. I was fairly close to the bird and f/6.3 didn’t give me enough depth of field to get the left wing sharp but I think the image still works quite well.
It’s been an interesting and enjoyable camping/photo trip so far. The weather has been mostly great and we’ve had some pretty good luck with birds but interestingly nearly all of it has been in the mornings. Typically I’ve been shooting about a thousand images each morning and mostly getting skunked in the evenings.
I guess (just like me) the birds around here are “early birds”.
Ron
😀 He’s lovely.
I have never see a Red Tail that dark. What a beauty. Great shot Ron. Glad you hare having a good trip!
Grace, power, style.
Early birds get more than worms, and voles…
Thank you for such a good look at a dark morph RTH…very educational.
What a wonderful shot Ron!
Charlotte
What a beautiful, beautiful bird! Never in a thousand years would I have known this was a red-tailed! Love the wing position, expression and those very, very powerful talons. No wonder m,y Lakota friends call that bird, “Little brother of the eagle”…Once again, I’m awfully glad not to be a vole!!!
Ron, wonderful take off pic showing those formidable talons. Can hardly wait to see the RTHA and the corvid together. Thanks.
Even with the soft left wing, this photo is beautiful. Not sure I’ve seen a dark morph RTH.