{"id":26299,"date":"2014-08-31T06:24:32","date_gmt":"2014-08-31T12:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=26299"},"modified":"2014-08-31T06:44:19","modified_gmt":"2014-08-31T12:44:19","slug":"fighting-red-tailed-hawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/31\/fighting-red-tailed-hawks\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting Red-tailed Hawks"},"content":{"rendered":"

These skirmishes are almost impossible to anticipate when you’re watching one of the birds through a telephoto lens and don’t even know that there’s another one in the area.<\/p>\n

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

\u00a01\/3200, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Two days ago this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk was hunting from a sign post and everything seemed to be calm – to the point that I was enjoying the sunflowers in the setting and\u00a0the irony of the sign it was perched on.\u00a0 That tranquility didn’t last long…<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0\u00a01\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

My first hint of\u00a0possible\u00a0impending excitement was when the hawk glanced up at something in the sky.\u00a0 There were blackbirds and a kestrel in the area\u00a0so I thought one of them might buzz the hawk but for fear I’d miss the action\u00a0I didn’t dare take my eye away from the viewfinder.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

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

\u00a01\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0This image speaks for itself – incoming!!!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

\u00a01\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0I was disappointed that I cut off half of the attacking hawk but at least I got the entire reaction of the perched bird,\u00a0who then…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

\u00a01\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0jumped almost straight up to meet its attacker.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

\u00a01\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In the next image there were more clipped body parts but I got the essential elements of the fight – especially those wicked-looking talons and the look of determination from the hawk on the left.\u00a0 For some reason I’m fascinated by the almost coiled patterns on that birds\u00a0right wing which remind me a bit of a Nautilus shell.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

\u00a01\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the last shot I got of the fracas before I lost focus when the birds separated.\u00a0 Notice how the left wing of the lower hawk intersects the right wing of the other bird.\u00a0\u00a0Immediately after this shot was taken the aggressor landed on the ground to the right of the sign post and the hawk that was originally perched flew off to my left.\u00a0 Both of these birds are juveniles and it’s very possible that they’re siblings but I really have no idea if that’s the case.<\/p>\n

One day I might be lucky enough to capture this kind\u00a0of behavior without clipping or cutting off body parts but it’s unlikely.\u00a0 In situations like this with a perched bird I\u00a0tend to see if I can get close enough for good detail while it’s perched and\u00a0when it\u00a0(possibly) takes off.\u00a0 That’s much too close when two birds are fighting and you never know when it’s going to happen.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Two days ago this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk was hunting from a sign post and everything seemed to be calm – to the point that I was enjoying the sunflowers in the setting and the irony of the sign it was perched on. That tranquility didn’t last long…<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26305,"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":[334,394,450],"tags":[415,452,140,190,451,302],"class_list":["post-26299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds","category-fighting-bird-behaviors","category-red-tailed-hawks","tag-agonistic-behavior","tag-buteo-jamaicensis","tag-fighting","tag-juvenile","tag-red-tailed-hawk","tag-talons"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-2921-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-6Qb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26299","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=26299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}