{"id":165373,"date":"2024-11-15T05:58:27","date_gmt":"2024-11-15T12:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=165373"},"modified":"2024-11-15T07:00:24","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T14:00:24","slug":"red-tailed-hawk-trying-to-fake-me-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2024\/11\/15\/red-tailed-hawk-trying-to-fake-me-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Red-tailed Hawk Trying To Fake Me Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the morning these photos were taken I had a lot of trouble with heat waves interfering with sharp focus so none of these photos are quite as sharp as I prefer, and usually expect. But I think they’re plenty sharp enough to document my experience with the hawk.<\/em><\/p>\n

When I get a bird in my viewfinder I’m usually looking to get takeoff and\/or flight shots when it takes off. And especially when it’s a larger bird, like most raptors for example, I anticipate that it will take off in the direction it was looking just prior to launch. If I’m right, and usually I am, that gives me a much better chance to keep it in frame while it’s in flight because I can allow more room in the frame in the direction it was looking – the same direction it would eventually take off.<\/p>\n

But every once in a while, even a large raptor will try to fake me out with a flashy and unexpected maneuver.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/2500, 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

Four days ago I saw this immature Red-tailed Hawk land on a large rock some distance away so I decided to see if ‘he’ would allow me a closer approach. He did.<\/p>\n

He faced and looked to my right for the entire time I had him in my viewfinder, never even glancing in any other direction that I noticed. So assuming that if he took off he’d take off in the direction he was looking, I placed him to the left side of the frame in my viewfinder which allowed more room on the right.<\/p>\n

Let’s see how things turned out. The following five photos are sequential without any skips.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/2500, 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

Suddenly, with absolutely no warning, he twisted his body to face almost 180\u00b0 behind him and…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/2000, 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

took off in that direction instead. I just happened to be far enough away that I was still able to keep him in frame, despite his apparent efforts to outfox me.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/2000, 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

In the next shot, the most dramatic of his flight postures, he had his nictitating membrane mostly closed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/2500, 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

A flight posture I don’t capture very often. His tail looks huge.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/2500, 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

Here he was picking up speed and his flight became more erratic so this is the last shot I got before I began to amputate body parts.<\/p>\n

Given that he didn’t give me any behavioral cues that he was about to take off (he didn’t crouch, or poop or rouse), and he took off in the opposite<\/span> direction he’d been looking, I was lucky to keep him in frame for as long as I did.<\/p>\n

Despite long odds, sometimes things just work out.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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

Despite the hawk’s efforts, this time I prevailed. (6 photos)<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,334,395,450],"tags":[6705,452,146,515,451,2738,311],"class_list":["post-165373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bird-photography-methods","category-birds","category-miscellaneous","category-red-tailed-hawks","tag-anticipating-takeoff","tag-buteo-jamaicensis","tag-flight","tag-nictitating-membrane","tag-red-tailed-hawk","tag-takeoff","tag-utah-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/red-tailed-hawk-3813-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-H1j","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165373"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":165410,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165373\/revisions\/165410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}