Sometimes I wonder if my camera lies to me about what it sees.
I photographed this Red-tailed Hawk yesterday morning in Wayne County, Utah just after it mated with another red-tail (naturally I missed those shots). The setting is so busy that the only reason I took a few shots is so I could later see if there was anything interesting about the bird. I have that habit.
The bird seems unremarkable, including the size of its crop.
But when the hawk took off a few seconds later its crop appeared to be bulging almost to the point of rupture. I can’t reconcile the two images. Which one best represents reality or is reality somewhere in between the two images? It makes me wonder if I don’t sometimes rely too much on my photos as representative of “fact”.
On another note, I was impressed by the agility and athleticism of this bird as it avoided all those branches when it took off.
Ron
Wow! Amazing Ron!
Charlotte
Intriguing.
And, as usual, your post is amazing and the comments take it to a whole new dimension.
Thank you all.
I love your photos and have just recently “found” you. Thank you for them. I am really loving your honesty with what is represented. It sure opens up the conversation.
Thanks again.
I just checked again, and the second shot appeared–just a glitch in transmission, I guess……
Hi Ron, this is an area where I am involved, in putting vinyl on windows to make them less reflective. It has been proven scientifically that birds can fly through holes as small as 4″ wide and 2″ tall. You can see the retrofits we installed on our website nrel.gov. You could also look up a youtube video of a goshawk in slow motion flight to show the progressively smaller holes it can fly through. It is amazing!
Hey–how come everybody else got a second image and I got nuthin’ ? Just an off-white rectangle !
The first shot looks notmal, but in the second, it looks like the birds swallowed a baseball…a strange trick of light and shadow? I can’t figure it out….
It is a radical change in crop between the pictures! Amazing how they can navigate the branches – Great Horned Owls always amaze me with their navigational skills as well as their silence too. Good shots, Ron.
I’m not in disagreement with the knowledgable professional here, however, when you look at the hawk in the first shot the weight of what is in the crop is evenly distributed and difficult to tell just how full the crop really is. The second shot the hawk is moving (sudden movement?) to his/her right and therefore the weight of what is in her crop would tend to budge out and is going to show. I’m sure your shot angle has something to do with it, but there is so much light on the chest, and the only shadows are under the wing on his/her right side that it just seems to me to be a full crop that moved at that instant that the shutter was released. Just my take on it.
I think Dick’s assessment pretty much sums it up. The crop in these birds is so thin and lightweight that it’s semi-transparent when food contents are contained within. A sudden shift in the birds movement while negotiating the branches, and the resulting “G” forces would tend to temporarily deform the crop. It always amazes me what shows up during frame by frame analysis of images of birds in flight. Nice photos, Ron!
You know Ron….looking at the Hawk’s face, there is a large shadow…might the dark line outlining her crop be a small branch shadow? Adding in a shade effect? Hmmmmm…..
Tim
When I travel Highway 36 across Missouri, I often see red-tailed hawks but have never seen one as clearly as I just got to do in your photos. Thanks so much. One hawk must have been particularly large because I saw that white chest and wondered what it might be. It’s hard to keep your eyes on the road and look for birds perched in trees along the way 🙂
I agree with 48 Dodge about this bird’s crop. When they’re perched, their feathers are mostly relaxed, held a little farther away from their body (assuming they’re not fluffed up to keep warm or slicked down in an alert posture). When they take flight, their feathers are more slicked down, so that would account for the different look. There’s also the different angle and lighting to consider.
As for negotiating through foliage, they’re experts. Sometimes, when *my* birds (who are no more mine than the air I breathe) have flown off a ways through the forest, I’ll call them back to the fist just to watch the wonderfulness of them flying the slolam through the trees! On the ground, they’ll get into some of the most hideously tangled brush that’s just not possible for them to penetrate. And yet, there they are. When it’s time to come out, they untangle the puzzle with ease. Amazing!
Ooops…I neglected to insert my ridiculously, repetitively redundant Oh WOW! 😀 Lovely photos and you know redtails have captured my heart and soul (along with HAHAs and Kestrels and oh never mind…birds!)!
Laura – just wanted to tell you how much I enjoy reading your experiences with hawks. Very interesting and educational!! I have a 12 year nephew who has mild Asperger’s Syndrome. I got him interested in Raptors and resently learned his social worker is a falconer who hass been teaching him the skills. Reading your posts gives me an idea of what he is experiencing.
Hi Jo Ann! So delighted your nephew is learning about falconry, but beware! It’s a passion that when caught is impossible to shake 😀 The privilege these birds grant us is unlike anything I can describe. Our language simply doesn’t go anywhere near far enough into the profound nature of this relationship. It brings the highest highs and also, the lowest lows, but overall it is a profound, primal joy. I hope he’s able to go far with it. Raptors have what I can only call a grace of being that is magical. They can also be buttheads, but as long as you learn their rules and follow them religiously, you’re good. They will teach you a lot if you listen. LOL!
In my first note I got off the subject… “the birds crop,” does look like it’s about to explode. Personally
I have no evidence to offer, but will wait for information from those that know. These are the kinds of
images that I love… they bring up questions, and encourage discussion about the “unknown.” ;-)))
Most times a Red Tailed Hawk’s crop can be hard to read unless you actually run your finger across it, or just had a very large meal. The first picture I would have said 3/4 crop…the 2nd I would have said full+….so in a sense, I would say the lighting and shadows have added to the “confusion”. To say the muscles and wing movement caused the crop to move forward etc. would be not very “right” or “correct” in my opinion…they tend to tighten up the feathers and body when taking flight.
Side note: I lost my beloved RT Hawk,Sakura to asper last fall. Very sad. I have since been training a new RT Hawk, Sachi, who was a rescue, but now is my main bird. She is quite large and very, very strong. My standard gloves were not tough enough, and boy, with her grip, I suffered a few “stabbings”. lol
Tim
I’m so sorry for your loss 48Dodger. Asper is a horrid disease, and there’s little you can do since our birds are stoic and don’t show symptoms until it’s too late. I’ve been lucky. Mariah, my female redtail, is 22 years old this year. In her 18th year, she flew into a glass wall taking a stealth shortcut through a loading dock platform to get the rabbit on the other side and very nearly died. She survived, but she’s now blind in her right eye and has some neurological damage as well.
I’m delighted that you’ve got Sachi now. There’s a special delight in learning the personality of a new bird, despite all the bloodletting and new earring opportunities 😀 Wishing you abundant bunnies or squirrels (or whatever since there’s almost nothing they can’t catch as long as its head fits in their foot/talons)!
Thank you for the kind words Laura. 🙂
22 years is quite a feat, you should be proud! Sorry about her injury though, I know that had it happened outside your care, she may not be here now. Sakura was a stunt flyer for sure…I’ve never had such a bird before. She flew like a falcon! Once chasing a jack rabbit for 3 quarters of a mile before striking. Unreal. I loved looking after her, she was a friend. Sachi is slow to learn because she is so timid and awkward. Its funny, her first real success has been flying into the muse and putting herself “away”. I have a permanent perch in front of the muse, and a perch on the counter of the 1st room, which leads of course to her living area. She hits all her marks to get inside like she had a target on her back..lol.
Tim
Tim, don’t you just love it when they turn you into a giggly two-year-old, jumping up and down, clapping your hands, and squealing, “Do it again! Do it again!” I love those moments!
Good luck with Sachi. It’s hard to beat the experience of working with a rescue hawk. Falconry at its best, in my opinion. : )
It is nice when we make a “pretty picture,” but as “teachers” is is also necessary to
show our subjects in their natural habitat, even if that habitat is very busy. Personally,
I like these two images, because they tell just a bit of the story about the life of a
Red-tailed Hawk. There are times when I’m photographing one of my animal subjects that a
bit of trash shows up in the frame… often I leave it, because I want to show how much
some are “trashing” our human nest… A species that continually fouls its nest will not
long endure…. Just this old mans opinion. ;-)))