Today I’ll concentrate on the fourth behavior – rousing.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/red-tailed-hawk-5553-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-5553-ron-dudley\\"")
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1\/3200, f\/5.6, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Five days ago I waited a long time for this presumed female adult Red-tailed Hawk to take off but even though I was close to her she seemed perfectly content where she was. Every two or three minutes I had to give my brain and my strained right eye (my “shooting eye”) a quick break so I’d momentarily look away by re-checking my camera settings or looking at the bird with my naked eye or just closing my eyes for a second or two.<\/p>\n I was just lucky that she didn’t choose one of those times to take off. They seem to take great delight in doing so.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/5.6, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n But suddenly she roused, which told me that she was likely preparing to take off momentarily so I focused my concentration on her intensely again.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/5.6, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n And a few seconds later that’s exactly what happened. I got the takeoff and flight shots because I was prepared for them – thanks to her rouse.\u00a0Raptors don’t always rouse prior to takeoff but when they do it’s very helpful to the savvy photographer.<\/p>\n There may be several seconds or up to a minute or so between rouse and takeoff (if it happens at all) but occasionally rouse and takeoff happen simultaneously. So when they begin to rouse you have to re-gain your concentration very quickly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n This grumpy-looking immature Red-tailed Hawk began to…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n rouse and during the middle of it ‘he’…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n took off, which surprised the hell out of me. I was just lucky that I’d gained my concentration as quickly as I did.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n He continued to rouse in flight for…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n several more photos in the burst. I’ve seen this happen a few times but usually I wasn’t expecting the bird to take off in the middle of the rouse so I didn’t gain my concentration quickly enough and missed the takeoff.<\/p>\n Takeoff shots are easy to miss, even with larger and slower raptors, so photographers need every edge we can get. It helps a lot to be able to recognize and read behaviors.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n On an unrelated note:<\/em><\/p>\n Like many photographers, and perhaps most bird photographers, I’m fully aware of the “rule of thirds<\/a><\/span><\/span>” when it comes to composition but when I’m in the field that rule typically gets left by the wayside. As active and uncooperative as birds are, I’m often lucky just to get them in frame so I don’t think much about compositional rules when I’m taking photos. My philosophy that rules are meant to be broken gives me solace. And an excuse.<\/em><\/p>\n But when I was cropping the first photo above I achieved something that rarely happens with my photos.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n By placing the hawk’s eye in the frame where I did I satisfied the rule of thirds exactly and still liked the composition.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/red-tailed-hawk-5561-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-5561-ron-dudley\\"")
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