{"id":15985,"date":"2013-06-10T04:00:59","date_gmt":"2013-06-10T10:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=15985"},"modified":"2013-06-10T03:23:00","modified_gmt":"2013-06-10T09:23:00","slug":"ferruginous-hawk-with-chicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/10\/ferruginous-hawk-with-chicks\/","title":{"rendered":"Ferruginous Hawk With Chicks"},"content":{"rendered":"

We put in a lot of time and I drove many miles looking for birds (and mammals) on this latest Montana trip.\u00a0\u00a0 In the five full days we were\u00a0there (not counting the drive to and from Montana)\u00a0I put almost 900 miles on my pickup cruising the dirt roads of several counties and two different states as\u00a0I scouted out opportunities in natural and remote locations.<\/p>\n

If you know what to look for the\u00a0nests of Red-tailed Hawks, Swainson’s Hawks, Ferruginous Hawks and even the occasional Golden Eagle\u00a0aren’t too hard to find but they’re usually either high up\u00a0in large trees or in shorter trees far off\u00a0on the\u00a0top of inaccessible hills or\u00a0on cliffs.\u00a0 And that’s as it should be – given the thoughtlessness of too many gawkers\u00a0and photographers out there who have no regard for\u00a0the sensitivities of nesting birds and try to get close enough to them for good looks and good\u00a0shots with short lenses (I know, I’m editorializing.\u00a0\u00a0I can’t help myself sometimes but if you’d seen what I’ve seen…)<\/p>\n

Anyway, at the end of one of those very long, rough and dusty\u00a0drives we came upon this Ferrug\u00a0on a nest.\u00a0 We’d spotted the nest on a previous day but could only see the top of the bird’s head as it hunkered down so\u00a0at the time we didn’t know what species the occupant was.\u00a0 The nest was close to the dirt road and on top of a stunted tree at almost eye level.\u00a0 It was early\u00a0afternoon and the light was harsh but I was confident that with our long lenses we could get reasonably good photos from the road (shooting from inside my pickup) without unduly\u00a0disturbing the\u00a0hawk.<\/p>\n

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\"ferruginous<\/a><\/p>\n

I’ve cropped this image as I have to emphasize\u00a0the massiveness of the nest.\u00a0 As you can see they use large sagebrush branches for the bulk of the nest and it is truly huge.\u00a0 Prior to 1900 these birds often used bison and pronghorn bones (particularly ribs) for\u00a0nest construction.\u00a0 I’ll bet such a nest was a sight to see!<\/p>\n

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\"ferruginous<\/a><\/p>\n

Soon one cute little white head came into view.<\/p>\n

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\"ferruginous<\/a><\/p>\n

And a while later when the adult apparently\u00a0decided it was time for a break from parental duties, its liftoff revealed yet another youngster in the nest.<\/p>\n

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\"ferruginous<\/a><\/p>\n

The\u00a0adult passed in front of me before it apparently went off hunting or just off\u00a0for some exercise.\u00a0\u00a0We watched it soaring high over the hill behind the nest for approximately 10 minutes but it never went too far away, probably because there were other\u00a0potential chick dangers (ravens, harriers and red-tails)\u00a0in the area.<\/p>\n

I do wish for light in the eye here but it’s just too much to expect for the time of day.\u00a0 With the sun high in the sky and the overhanging brow ridge of the hawk it’s just not going to happen in level flight.<\/p>\n

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\"ferruginous<\/a><\/p>\n

After the adult lifted off a third chick revealed itself.<\/p>\n

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\"ferruginous<\/a><\/p>\n

Almost immediately\u00a0after a raven landed on a fence post perhaps 150 yards from the nest the adult swooped in and landed on top of the flower-covered hill behind and to the right of the nest.\u00a0 I suspect it was vigilantly standing guard over the chicks.<\/p>\n

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\"ferruginous<\/a><\/p>\n

I thought I’d include this image to give you more perspective on the situation.\u00a0 This shot was taken at only 100mm, compared\u00a0to the 700mm using my\u00a0500 + tc.\u00a0 You can see the nest at the top of the small tree\/large bush at lower left (including one of the white\u00a0chicks)\u00a0with the adult standing guard at the top of the hill in the upper right hand corner.\u00a0 For some reason it looks like we were above the nest in this view but we were actually slightly below\u00a0it.<\/p>\n

My\u00a0journeys back to Montana are enormously rejuvenating for me.\u00a0 Having grown up there it still seems like home and I love going back.<\/p>\n

I’m sure there’ll be several more of these trips before the snow flies…<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the end of one of those very long, rough and dusty drives we came upon this Ferruginous Hawk on a nest. We’d spotted the nest on a previous day but could only see the top of the bird’s head as it hunkered down so at the time we didn’t know what species the occupant was.<\/p>\n

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