![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-5581-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-5581-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nThe red-tail wasn’t there and then poof, there he was.<\/p>\n
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1\/6400, f\/6.3, ISO 1000, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Yesterday morning I pulled up to a seep (a place where water oozes slowly out of the ground) where songbirds often hang out in hopes of getting photos of early migrants. Almost directly in front of me was a rocky point that is a favorite hunting perch of raptors but as I was pulling up I glanced at it and there were no raptors there. Less than 10 seconds later, after I’d stopped my pickup at the seep, I checked out the rocky point again and lo and behold – this guy was there, staring at me. I have no idea where he came from.<\/p>\n The dark morph Red-tailed Hawk wasn’t very close but I took a few photos anyway and almost immediately ‘he’ had uninvited company.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/6400, f\/6.3, ISO 1000, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n A Northern Harrier dive bombed him repeatedly. In this attack he appeared to be doing his best to ignore the pesky harrier, which was made easier to do because this time the harrier didn’t come particularly close to him.<\/p>\n After each attack the harrier circled around to come at him again. This time the harrier’s nearly circular path…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 1000, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n brought it right over the top of me. I think the harrier approached my pickup deliberately rather than by chance, probably just to check me out but possibly to challenge me just like it was challenging the red-tail.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In either case I definitely had the harrier’s attention.<\/p>\n Then, after passing directly over my pickup, the harrier…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/6400, f\/6.3, ISO 1000, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n made another run at the red-tail. This time the harrier came closer so the larger hawk had no choice but to keep his eye glued on his attacker.<\/p>\n The harrier dive bombed the red-tail at least five times. One of the attacks occurred before I could raise my lens and two of them were made from left to right in the frame with the harrier not directly over the hawk, so I didn’t have enough depth of field to get them both sharp.<\/p>\n I was just lucky to document two of the five attacks and get both birds sharp.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The red-tail wasn’t there and then poof, there he was. (5 photos)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/northern-harrier-5586-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"northern-harrier-5586-ron-dudley\\"")
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<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/northern-harrier-5613-big-crop-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"northern-harrier-5613-big-crop-ron-dudley\\"")
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