![\"rough-legged](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/rough-legged-hawk-5995-ron-dudley.jpg\")
1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS\u00a0USM +1.4 tc, not baited,\u00a0 set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nI found this Rough-legged Hawk perched on a boulder on the northwest part of the\u00a0island exactly\u00a0two years ago.\u00a0 The light-colored rock, Tintic Quartzite,\u00a0is fairly distinctive of the north end of the island.\u00a0 The image was taken from a high point on the island and I was looking down slightly on the bird so the entire background is the sunlit Great Salt Lake – all of which fairly reeks (in a good way)\u00a0of Antelope Island for me.<\/p>\n
This bird was side-lit so this angle to the sun and pose were about the only conditions that worked well in a photograph (most of my other\u00a0shots of the hawk were deleted).\u00a0 Long ago I posted a similar but different\u00a0image of this bird but looking back on it I didn’t particularly like the way I’d processed it so I wanted to do a better job of it this time.\u00a0 The out of focus rusty spots in front of the rock are dried seed heads in the foreground.<\/p>\n
Numbers of wintering Rough-legged Hawks vary considerably around here from year to year.\u00a0 This winter I’m seeing very few of them on the island and can seldom get close to one when I do.\u00a0 Hopefully my track record in that regard will improve soon.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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For me this image has the stamp of Antelope Island through and through, though others may not recognize it.<\/p>\n