Red-tailed Hawk And Its Buddy In A Rustic Western Setting

It isn’t often that I get two raptors in an image, one in flight and one perched. Yesterday morning as I was leaving the Centennial Valley I came across these two Red-tailed Hawks perched next to each other on adjacent fence posts. For a variety of reasons it’s always tricky to photograph birds when I’m pulling the camping trailer, it makes a lot of noise and creates a huge dust cloud, but both of these birds stuck to their perches as I approached so I got out of my pickup and shot across my hood.

 

red-tailed hawk 9358b ron dudley

1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II, EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc. not baited, set up or called in  

Eventually one of the hawks took off and flew right past its buddy (mate?). Though the resulting image isn’t perfect I still find it quite interesting. I like the typical rustic western setting (even though I don’t like barbed wire) and even though the background bird is out of focus we can still see that it is watching the other bird in flight. I also like the three-dimensional aspects of the image.  The fence is sloping because it follows the side of a hill down to the left.

Some may have heard about the fire that broke out in Glacier National Park last night. We’re very close to the park here on the farm and it was real spooky watching that wall of smoke approaching us just before the sun went down last night. I don’t know much about the fire yet but I’m quite concerned about it because as of last night it covered about 1000 acres and has “extreme potential for spread”. I’m not worried about the fire reaching us, only for the potential damage to the park and wildlife.

Ron

Addendum: As an afterthought I decided to post an image of the smoke from the fire as it approached the farm last night just before sunset. It was eery looking indeed. And a bit intimidating.  

smoke from glacier park fire 5529 ron dudley

 

 

 

 

18 Comments

  1. I hope that fire is brought under control quickly. I have not experienced them up real close, but have pictures somewhere of a blaze that was very close to my sisters’ houses, in southern California. It would be frightening, to say the least. And wildlife has a really hard time with out wildfires. The hawk photo is beautiful. And I’m beginning to understand why Elephant’s Child is so taken with britches.

  2. Charlotte Norton

    Wonderful shot! Erie sunset shot! Stay safe!
    Charlotte

  3. Love the red-tails.
    Fires scare me. So much damage, fear, pain. I hope it can be controlled quickly.

  4. Lovely shot of the hawks. Scary of the fire. I was in Colorado during the Hayman fire. It was dreadful.

  5. Ron. Bet the female is watching her mate leave.
    Wonderful image.i agree the second image is very frightening.

  6. Great shot Ron! I can just picture you, your truck and trailer stopping, getting out and setting up on the hood of your truck. Man, those hawks really were patient.

    Fire, fire everywhere! My daughter, who works for the US Forest Service, is in Alaska helping fight their fires at Tanana by the Yukon River. Sorry to hear about Glacier Park Fire. Lightening fires are a natural occurrence and that is what started the multi acreage fires in AK, but unfortunately not all fires in the lower 48 are started that way. I won’t go into the xx#&## adjectives I put on the non-thinking humans who cause untold millions of dollars damage to homes, property, wildlife habitat, etc., through their carelessness!!!

    • Dick, I have Alaskan friends who have been enduring those fires and that smoke all summer. Must be awful. I sure hope this fire in Glacier wasn’t man caused but I’ll bet it was…

    • Dick, your comment reminded me of the fact that there are some types of vegetation that need regular fire for renewal. Good examples I can think of are the chaparral in So Cal and the lodgepole pines in Yellowstone NP. Somehow, the wildlife copes. Thanks for the reminder.

  7. “A bit intimidating” heck….VERY! VERY scary!!! We had two barn fires (started by stupid,careless people), I had to rescue horses TWICE!!! Thought my little sister had perished in the last, but was OK afterall…fires, even the smell of smoke, scare the dickens out of me! I hope itvrains, hatd, very soon…and that all is OK…Can’t even bear to think about the wildlife and the trees…

  8. Eerie and scary. Love the red-tails.

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