Yesterday morning I was at the right place at the right time when all hell broke loose. Today’s post is only a preview for reasons I’ll explain below.
It had been a slow morning for birds so when I spotted an immature Red-tailed Hawk on a nearby utility pole I watched it through my lens for a while. I did so mostly out of curiosity because it had its back to me so even takeoff shots didn’t look promising.
Suddenly and without warning another red-tail that I didn’t even know was in the area swooped in and attacked the hawk I’d been watching.
1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in
The bird on the left, the one I’d been watching, turned on its perch to meet the attacker coming in from the right. This is the precise moment of impact. I got several shots of them locked in a death grip near the top of the perch before they fell spiraling to the ground, still locked together.
They continued to fight on the ground for nearly 13 minutes before it was over.
In this large crop of the same image we more clearly see that they’d already locked talons. I can’t even imagine the speed, agility and accuracy required to successfully complete this double defensive talon-locking maneuver. Maybe you had to be there and witness it to fully appreciate how incredibly fast it all went down.
Obviously I had no idea what I’d captured until I reviewed some of my images at home.
I took many hundreds of photos of these birds while they were fighting for 13 minutes so it goes without saying that I haven’t yet had time to carefully review them all, much less get them culled, and that’s why today’s post is only a preview.. I hope to publish a more comprehensive post of the encounter with many more photos in the coming days, perhaps as soon as tomorrow.
Based on what I’ve seen so far it should be worth the wait.
Ron
Some very exciting photos and a lot more to come.
Glad neither seemed to be hurt and after 13 minutes that is miraculous!
Thanks for the great photos, Ron
Wow! I am curious about how it ended. It looks vicious.
Wow! Incredible shots Ron! Thanks for sharing!
Charlotte Norton
Thanks, Charlotte.
I did witness a fight between two Red Tail Hawks as I was hiking in our hills. They kept flying in circles, and squawking at each other. My heart sank when I saw the claws pop out. Luckily the intruder decided to move on, and that ended the fight.
Jean, I don’t remember either of these birds making a sound.
OMG, can’t wait to see the follow-up shots. Amazing what patience, a long lense and being in the right place can produce. WOW!!!
Joan
Thanks, Joanne. Probably more luck than anything but I’ll take some credit for being prepared for the unexpected and having a quick trigger finger.
I dunno, not sure I can take any more cliffhangers this week … 🤔
But glad to read further on to see that, as far as you know, neither hawk sustained major injury. Except perhaps to one’s pride (and loss of territory).
Looking forward to follow-ups!
Good point about cliffhangers, Chris. I feel the same way.
Great capture and so fun to witness. They both look like this year hatch, I wonder if they a siblings?
April, I’d be surprised if they were siblings but I’ve been surprised before.
Reading through the comments I am thrilled (and surprised) to learn that neither were seriously hurt. And I am so looking forward to seeing more.
EC, I didn’t see any evidence of injury but who really knows…
Your and the Hawks timing is uncanny. A fight; a cliffhanger. I can’t stand the anticipation.
Lyle, I still don’t know what I’ll find when I look at those images carefully so there’s some anticipation for me too.
Terrific! I look forward in great anticipation for your follow-up! Looks like your timing and patience observing the pole sitter paid off in dividends. The ‘Waiting Game’…priceless! 🙂
Thanks, Kathy. As you know, with birds you just never know what might be coming down the pike.
Very soon after Mariah arrived in my life, 25 years ago as of yesterday, I began telling people that those talons not only move faster than you think, they move faster than you CAN think!! Sometimes that flash of incredible speed resulted in her talons being embedded in my hand–not often, but sometimes! Once, she sunk her halux talon THROUGH my hand and out the other side, oddly when we had a reporter from the “Fort Worth Star-Telegram” in the field with us, she’d caught her rabbit on the railroad tracks and there was a train coming! Also oddly, I didn’t much care because the primary objective was to move her and her rabbit safely off the railroad tracks and we all had a hold of something to accomplish that objective!
I only screamed in my head (they LIKE it when you scream out loud), and when she ultimately let go of me, I calmly wrapped my hand in my towel and went about the business of trading her off, There wasn’t much blood from me and I seriously don’t think the reporter noticed. If he did, he didn’t mention it 😉
And what a lovely day for you to post a pair of redtails! I was up most of the night, so this is a wondrous blessing for me!! Can’t wait to see the rest of your images!!
Wow, that’s quite a story, Laura. I knew you were tough as nails but…
Oh and yesterday’s images of the dark-morph redtail were STUNNING! I’m a fool for the dark and rufous morphs!
There are so many great things about this shot, but the ‘eyes have it’ imo.
Looking forward to more.
Thanks very much, Steve.
Wow! What an exciting capture. I hope neither were hurt.
Joanne, as far as I could tell there were no serious injuries which surprised me.
WOW! 😲 After a relatively droughty fall for birds you got “action” in spades! 😀 Glad neither got electrocuted in the process. Must have something REALLY worth fighting over…… Looking forward to more of the action tho sure don’t envy you the culling process! 😉
Judy, the only reason I can think of for their fighting is defense of hunting territory.
That first year for raptors is very difficult to survive. Fighting over hunting territory not claimed by an adult seems like it might occur pretty often as part of the fight to live through that first year. I certainly have seen hunting juveniles leave rapidly when an adult appears.,
Good point, Pam.
The Battle of the Red-tailed Hawks by Ron Dudley coming soon to a theater near you.
I can’t wait to see the full battle. During my 14 years of photographing hawks here I have never seen one attack another although I am sure confrontations like this are very common.
Looking forward to tomorrow’s post.
Everett, I’ve photographed attacks similar to this one two or three times but they never fought after the initial very brief attack. This 13 minute battle was very different in that way.
Wow! Even the hawks are feeling the tension!
Maybe the hawks especially…