{"id":22393,"date":"2014-02-27T06:37:43","date_gmt":"2014-02-27T13:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=22393"},"modified":"2014-02-27T09:22:39","modified_gmt":"2014-02-27T16:22:39","slug":"red-tailed-hawk-in-flight-with-prey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2014\/02\/27\/red-tailed-hawk-in-flight-with-prey\/","title":{"rendered":"Red-tailed Hawk In Flight With Prey"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s not often that I catch a Red-tailed Hawk in flight with a vole in its beak.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"red-tailed<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/2500, f\/8, ISO 500, Canon 7D, 500 f\/4 II, wire removed, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

A few weeks ago (January 21) I was attempting flight shots of this adult as it hunted from power poles in\u00a0Tooele County.\u00a0\u00a0 When the bird launched after prey (voles) its angle of attack was usually fairly steep, as it is here.\u00a0 The attempts at prey were most often unsuccessful so it would come back to the same pole or a different one down the line to resume its hunting.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"red-tailed<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a01\/3200, f\/8, ISO 500, Canon 7D, 500 f\/4 II, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

But 15 minutes after the previous\u00a0photo was taken the bird caught a vole out in the snow and grass and as it returned to a different power pole to enjoy breakfast I was able to get a few shots in flight.\u00a0 As you can see, the hawk came up with a grass stem to\u00a0go with its meal.\u00a0 The bird is centered in the frame because I\u00a0ran out of room to the left and\u00a0the image needs rotation but that would cost me even more pixels.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"red-tailed<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a01\/3200, f\/8, ISO 500, Canon 7D, 500 f\/4 II, canvas added for composition,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Three frames later the hawk is gaining altitude as it approaches a power pole.\u00a0 Its feet\u00a0look a little odd to me but even with an extreme crop I can’t tell why with any certainty.\u00a0 Mud perhaps….<\/p>\n

The last two shots are of\u00a0mediocre image\u00a0quality (fairly large crops) but I’m always happy to document behavior like this.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

Addendum:\u00a0 After some of the first comments suggesting that this bird may have bumblefoot I decided to post an extreme crop of the image in case it might reveal more helpful detail about what’s going on with the foot (feet).<\/em><\/p>\n

\"red-tailed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s not often that I catch a Red-tailed Hawk in flight with a vole in its beak. <\/p>\n

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