The Ferruginous Hawk is often described as “massive and robust” but this one appears to have taken that description to extremes. Weighing up to 4 1/2 lbs (2kg) they are our largest and most powerful buteo so one expects to see an impressive-looking bird but even so I was struck by the prodigious girth of this individual.
If anything will get my adrenalin gushing it’s a wild Peregrine Falcon, especially if the encounter is unexpected and I make a rookie mistake.
Two years ago this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk hunted the same area of Antelope Island for much of the summer.
I believe this to be a perspective on a landing raptor that one seldom sees in a photograph. It may not be to everyone’s taste but I found it interesting nonetheless.
There are three primary schools of thought when it comes to blurred wings in flight – not ever, they don’t bother me and it depends on the image. I fall in the latter camp.
Wind can be an issue when photographing birds in flight but at times it can also be your friend.
This is my promised update on the eventual outcome of the recent escaped white Gyrfalcon saga.
When I’m in the field I sometimes curse the snow but for bird photographers that white, messy stuff can often be a blessing in disguise.
The concentration of a raptor on landing is nearly always intense. Throw an impending fight into the mix and that intensity becomes almost palpable.
Partially based on input from my readers I’ve been thinking more about styles in my bird photography.
This is a look and pose I’ve noticed fairly often from Red-tailed Hawks in conditions like this but I rarely see the same from a harrier.
This is a simple example of how changing the crop of a photograph can drastically alter one’s perspective on the image.
I like the backgrounds provided by western mountains for birds in flight but as I’ve said previously backdrops with texture make it more difficult to get sharp focus lock on the bird.
