![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/red-tailed-hawk-5202-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-5202-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nA first for me.<\/p>\n
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1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Two days ago I found this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk perched on a pile of lichen-encrusted rocks in northern Utah. This is a very young bird, fledged only recently, but even at that tender age ‘he’ was smart enough to fool me. There was a steep slope in front of him so when he took off in that direction I figured he’d take off at a pretty steep angle and that’s the direction my lens went when I tried to keep him in frame and in focus when he launched.<\/p>\n But he had other plans.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Instead of taking off steeply to avoid the hillside before flying off, he took off at a shallow angle and landed on a rock only about 30′ away from his previous perch and slightly above it. As a result I either clipped wings, or he had his left wing in front of his face or the bird was soft in those few flight and landing shots I managed to get.<\/p>\n Here he’s actually looking at the spot on the side of a cliff he would fly to next so I imagine the purpose of that very short flight was to get a better look at it so he could do some ‘flight planning’. He looks like he’s planning to me.<\/p>\n I’m struck by the beauty of this very dark, young bird.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n OK, now we get to the fun part. Followers of Feathered Photography have almost certainly seen this bird before, when he looked very, very different.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Eighteen days ago, on July 1st, I posted this photo of a female Red-tailed Hawk on her cliff-side nest while she was shading her chick from the hot sun. But the photo was actually taken on June 2nd, 46 days ago. I believe the chick in this photo and the juvenile in the previous photos are one and the same bird.<\/p>\n Following are the reasons I think so.<\/p>\n Even if I’m wrong and there was more than one chick in the nest, there’s still a good chance that the chick and the juvenile are the same bird. I think that’s pretty neat. This is the first time I’ve been able to make such a strong connection (not infallible, but strong) between a young red-tail chick in the nest and the specific fledged juvenile it became.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tying up some loose ends:<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A first for me. (3 photos)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/red-tailed-hawk-5227-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-5227-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/red-tailed-hawk-8404-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-8404-ron-dudley\\"")
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