![\"red-tailed](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/red-tailed-hawk-3342-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Centennial Valley had one more surprise in store as we left for home last Thursday morning.\u00a0 Photographing birds and other wildlife\u00a0along the 27 mile long dirt road while I’m pulling the camping trailer is always awkward but the road is typically deserted that time of day and we’ve come up with something special more than once on the way out.<\/p>\n
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\u00a01\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4x\u00a0 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n I stopped briefly for this adult Red-tailed Hawk perched on\u00a0a power\u00a0pole next to the road.\u00a0 I had no interest in photographing the bird on the ugly pole but hoped for some take-off shots so I took a photo or two to get my exposure right and waited for it to launch.\u00a0 I remember thinking that I\u00a0might be\u00a0a little too close to the hawk\u00a0to get take-off shots without clipping any body parts so I was considering removing my teleconverter but that takes a few seconds and I was afraid the bird would choose that moment to take off so I\u00a0hesitated.\u00a0 That hesitation was a huge mistake.<\/p>\n In hindsight as I look at the posture of the bird above (this image was taken a split-second before events began to unfold) I might have picked up a clue that something interesting was about to happen.\u00a0 I’ve seen that slightly bowed posture many times before from\u00a0perched raptors when other birds\u00a0(raptors or even\u00a0mobbing songbirds) are about to harass them.\u00a0 But I missed the clue (if it was one) and had no idea as I looked through my viewfinder with my vision much restricted that all hell was about to break loose.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4x\u00a0 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Without warning my viewfinder was instantly filled with feathers as a Swainson’s Hawk swooped in and attacked the Red-tail.\u00a0 I instinctively jerked my lens in an attempt to keep as much of the action in frame as possible but I was only\u00a0partially successful.\u00a0 The Red-tail had seen the Swainson’s coming of course and timed\u00a0its response so it could present its talons in defense.\u00a0 I so<\/em> wish I’d at least been able to get the Swainson’s eyes in the frame but it just didn’t happen.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4x\u00a0 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0It all went down very fast – by the next\u00a0shot in the burst (8 frames per second) the Swainson’s was already\u00a0completely out of frame\u00a0and the Red-tail was beginning to recover.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4x\u00a0 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Here the recovery is almost complete.\u00a0 It looks like the Red-tail might come back down on the pole but it didn’t and flew off.<\/p>\n Swainson’s Hawks are\u00a0well-known for their aggressiveness toward Red-tails.\u00a0 Swainson’s return to their North American breeding grounds when most other raptor species have already begun nesting so competition and combat between the two\u00a0species is common as the Swainson’s attempt to reclaim nests used the previous year.\u00a0 This power pole was close to a dense stand of conifers that I strongly suspect was the location of the Swainson’s nest.<\/p>\n This is one of those moments in my photographic life that I’d very much like to re-live but at least I got the shots that I did.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Centennial Valley had one more surprise in store as we left for home last Thursday morning. Photographing birds and other wildlife along the 27 mile long dirt road while I’m pulling the camping trailer is always awkward but the road is typically deserted that time of day and we’ve come up with something special more than once on the way out.<\/p>\n![\"red-tailed](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/red-tailed-hawk-3343-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"red-tailed](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/red-tailed-hawk-3344-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"red-tailed](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/red-tailed-hawk-3345-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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