More evidence that raptors can be incredibly agile and quick when they need to be.
It’s been a while since I’ve rerun a favorite older post and I think this one deserves a second look. Another version of the same post was published seven years ago but for this version I’ve changed the title, cleaned up the formatting and made many changes to the text in an effort to make it more readable and descriptively accurate.
1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
In early October of 2014 I found this adult Red-tailed Hawk perched in an old snag in the mountains of Utah’s west desert. “She” had her back to me, the light was contrasty and she was side lit so at first I was more interested in watching her through my lens than I was in taking photos.
The following nine photos are sequential in a burst without any skips. The burst rate of my old Canon 7D camera is 8 frames/sec so the entire sequence took 1.125 seconds.
1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
But when she unexpectedly began to take off my photographer’s instincts took over and I fired off a quick burst of nine shots, even though I fully expected her to take off away from me.
1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
Instead she raised her wings while…
1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
jumping into the air, twisting her body to her left while still airborne and apparently attempting to land on a different fork of the same branch that was in front of her. I like this one-footed landing posture.
1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
She appeared to sort of dance around on the branch for a moment as if…
1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
she couldn’t decide if this perch was acceptable. Or not.
1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
My guess is that she was either looking around for another option for a perch or this branch she was on was an intermediate stop in her planned route to negotiate all the branches and twigs that were obstacles in her way as she left the tree. Whatever her original intention might have been she ended up leaving the tree.
At this point I can’t resist asking readers to attempt to predict which pathway she actually traveled as she left the tree. Please look at this image and take a wild guess.
This is the same image as the previous one. Believe it or not she will appear go “through” the triangular-shaped space marked by the red “x”. But before she got there she had another problem to deal with. The branch marked with a red arrow was directly in her path to that triangular space.
1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
She leaned far to her right in order to avoid the far end of the branch that had been her perch and reached for the branch that was in her way with her right foot.
1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
She grasped the branch that was in her way and…
1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
broke it off and pushed it out of the way so it was no longer an obstacle.
And she actually seemed to go through that triangle that appeared to be too small for her body, whether her wings were folded or not. It appears to be a closed triangle but in reality it isn’t. She had a little more room than it looks like she did but it was still an incredibly agile and almost unbelievable maneuver. Keep in mind that all this occurred in barely over one second.
I have to wonder what motivated her to run the gauntlet of branches and twigs instead of taking off away from me where there were no obstacles. Maybe she was after prey or perhaps she was just practicing complicated maneuvers for the next time she needed to be good at them. Or maybe, just maybe, she did it because she could, for the fun of it. If I could fly I might be tempted myself, for that very reason.
After all, on my 5th birthday my parents gave me a Mighty Mouse costume as a birthday present so thinking I might be able to fly I jumped off our pumphouse roof in Montana, red cape and all.
It didn’t end well.
Ron
Notes:
- Seven years ago when I published the first version of this post Mike Shaw of HawkWatch International made the following comment about this hawk’s maneuvers. I thought it was an unusually perceptive observation: “A Red-tail channeling a Goshawk!”
- From the Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men department. I intended to go shooting this morning but just before I got to the mouth of Parley’s Canyon UDOT signs said there was a “major crash” on eastbound I-80 going up the canyon and their website predicted it would be 2.5 hours before it would be cleared. Needless to say I turned around and came home.
- If you’d like to end this post with a Mighty Mouse-flavored smile I heartily recommend that you follow this link provided by my friend Neil Rossmiller: Guy Clark – The Cape.
Thanks for reposting this; great story and photos. Leave it to you to draw connections between a Red-tailed Hawk, mice (Mighty and otherwise), a pump house roof in Montana, and Guy Clark (how have I never heard of him?). I bet Robert Burns would get a kick out of all of it.
Thanks, Lyle. Sometimes I do tend to go where the spirit leads me don’t I.
Thank you for the song, Ron. It meant more to me than I can say.
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Buff. I watched it three times.
The red-tail threaded the needle with infinitely more panache and skill than I manage.
Loved the song (perhaps because my inner child is the healthiest and happiest part of me). And was reminded of Calvin’s frustration when his hat with a propeller did not give him lift off. I am also v glad that you survived your first attempt at flight.
Thanks, EC. My first and last attempt.
Gorgeous series. In 2016, I was asked to hunt train a young RT who at the tender age of one month had contracted West Nile Virus. He survived without noticeable after-effects and we worked together to four months (I’m a falconer.). I live in a heavily forested area, Cooper’s Hawk heaven. And this young RT – who weighed a good 1000 grams – learned to hunt in the woods. He’s still around and I think his main prey is tree squirrels. He’s fat and sassy and comes by to say “hello” every now and then. His flight maneuvers are spectacular.
Great story of adaptability and survival, Sallie.
Red-tailed Hawk attempting feat of daring, 5-year-old Ron attempting same — but one has wings to counteract errors in judgment, other has not — one succeeds in the attempt (why, we don’t know), one learns a big life lesson. And decides photographing birds is better than trying to fly like them (or cartoon mice). Lucky for us.
Great photos of a gorgeous hawk, great story, and a wonderful piece of music. Thanks for all of it!
Chris, I may not have had wings but I had a cape. Why didn’t it work???
Fun observations of problem solving. Sorry about the traffic jam.
Thanks, April. Glad you didn’t get caught in it.
These were just the greatest photos. I love all raptors and around here the redtail and red shouldered hawks are plentiful. Sometimes they put on great shows, but not quite as good as this one.
Thank you, Connie.
Guy Clark, one of my lifelong favorites… brought a smile and tears. Thanks, Ron.
Loved the photos, the explanation, the education, and the story. I believe we sell other beings short, all the time, because they are unlike us. But, if we were to watch and learn, we would see the profound ability they each have to maneuver through Life… with and without capes.
Nina, until Neil provided the link I was unaware of Guy Clark. I absolutely adored that song and his performance of it.
That IS a wonderful song/performance……:)
Daredevil Ron! Now we know the real source of your bad back LOL!
What a wonderful series of photos!!! All in a split second!!! Truly marvelous 🙂
“Now we know the real source of your bad back”
Come to think of it there may be some truth in that, Kathleen.
This got me thinking about how birds may experience time. Perhaps their brain perceives everything in slow motion so that what happens in a blink of our eyes actually is spread over a much longer time as perceived by birds. Hummingbirds may experience a human lifetime in the span of just a few months. A fly sees the swatter gradually approaching.
As they say, Kenneth, time is relative.
I predicted that she would go up and take a hard right. Can’t even think why she would go through where she did unless there was prey down below somewhere. Eight feet is a long way down for a five year old with only a Mighty Mouse cape to slow his descent. Interesting series.
It was indeed a long way down, Everett. That was the first time I ever had the breath knocked out of me, – thought I was dying.
69 years later I haven’t tried it again.
Some things are “once is enough”……. 😉
What astounding photos, thanks. It appears that many of us have tried to fly. I begged my mom to buy Jets cereal, as the boy in the commercial could fly after eating it. Also didn’t work…my disappointment was profound.
Thank you, Gail.
My disappointment was also profound but that was countered by the incredible relief that I survived the attempt.
Dinosaurs still exceed what us puny mammals can do. W#hat an amazing feat she executed!
Yup, very impressive Pam.
WOW! Amazing the contortions they can pull off when it “appears” they aren’t very “flexible”…. 😉 Quite the performance she gave you much of which wouldn’t have been “seen” just watching.
Bet you parents were more “thoughtful” about future gifts…..😬😀
“Bet you parents were more “thoughtful” about future gifts”
Apparently they were, Judy. The following Christmas they gave me a Lone Ranger outfit but the paired pistols that came with it were only cap guns… 🙂
Cap guns were “the thing” at that point in time – most parents were wise enough to know anything that put out a projectile was a BAD idea tho we DID have “spud guns” at one point……😇
That’s a great sequence of photos!
I was moved by your attempt to fly at your first day of being 5 years old. Thinking back, Mighty Mouse was my first crush… (So capable, yet so modest and kind.)
I was about four at the time, and I’m sure I would have been thrilled by your aspirations and most distressed at their consequences. I’m glad you arrived at bird photography as a sublimation of your former desires to fly!
Alison, thankfully the sloping roof of the pumphouse was only about 8′ off the ground at the point where I jumped off or the consequences could have been much worse.
They were bad enough as it was.