{"id":3223,"date":"2011-11-24T16:15:02","date_gmt":"2011-11-24T23:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=3223"},"modified":"2011-11-25T18:29:14","modified_gmt":"2011-11-26T01:29:14","slug":"a-very-cooperative-rough-legged-hawk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/24\/a-very-cooperative-rough-legged-hawk\/","title":{"rendered":"A Very Cooperative Rough-legged Hawk"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a previous post<\/a>\u00a0I mentioned that I had been encouraged by the number of Rough-legged Hawks\u00a0(roughies) I’ve been seeing this fall.\u00a0 Well I’m delighted to report that the situation continues to improve.\u00a0 On virtually every photo expedition over the last few weeks I’ve seen several of them and on two recent trips\u00a0we’ve made about a dozen sightings of different individuals each time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However getting good photos of them is a different story altogether.\u00a0 \u00a0After a season in the high arctic they’re very unapproachable and even when I have been able to get reasonably close they’re usually perched on an unattractive sign or post and take off away from me.\u00a0 All that changed a few days ago though when\u00a0we found one very cooperative bird.\u00a0\u00a0This species has the most different male and female plumages (sexual dimorphism)\u00a0of all our buteos and I’m\u00a0quite sure this\u00a0is a light phase female.\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"rough-legged-hawk-6003\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a01\/1000, f\/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n

We first spotted this bird on a low\u00a0wooden post that resembled a piling and I was pleasantly surprised that it let us approach (in my vehicle) with no signs of nervousness.\u00a0\u00a0 It was early on a cold, frosty\u00a0morning and\u00a0while looking through the viewfinder I assumed\u00a0that the\u00a0material on top of the post was spider silk that had collected dew and then frozen.\u00a0 But after looking at the photos at home I wasn’t so sure so the next day I walked over to the post to check it out.\u00a0\u00a0 Duh – should have known.\u00a0 It was\u00a0 frosted bison fur.\u00a0 This was<\/em> Antelope Island after all.\u00a0 Obviously, bison had used it as a scratching post.\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"rough-legged-hawk-6111\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a01\/800, f\/8, ISO 640, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n

It was a partly cloudy day and naturally I lost my good light soon after getting close to the hawk.\u00a0 But since\u00a0the roughie’s tail was hidden\u00a0\u00a0in the previous photo (and others like them) I decided to try to take advantage of the lack of direct light to get an angle on the bird that would at least show some of the tail (with direct light on the front of the bird the tail would be so shaded as to have shown no detail at all) so I slowly pulled forward in the pickup to get closer and a look at the tail.\u00a0 The hawk didn’t even flinch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"rough-legged-hawk-6148\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a01\/1200, f\/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n

At one point she apparently spotted a vole in the grasses nearby and flew off\u00a0to try to\u00a0capture it but a few seconds later she returned, empty clawed, to another post just a few feet away from the previous perch.\u00a0\u00a0 And this time she gave us a good look at her back with some nice head turns looking back at us.\u00a0 Too bad that the sun was still behind clouds so the light wasn’t the best.\u00a0 In fact I should mention that this image and the\u00a0previous one were underexposed and I had to bring them up in processing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"rough-legged-hawk-6450\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a01\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4<\/em><\/p>\n

Soon she flew off\u00a0on another unsuccessful\u00a0hunting foray and almost immediately returned to this more natural looking perch – again just a few feet from her previous perches.\u00a0 And lo and behold there was light<\/em>!\u00a0 And now I’m so close to her that I’ve had to remove my teleconverter.\u00a0 What a good bird!\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"rough-legged-hawk-6512\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a01\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f\/4<\/em><\/p>\n

She was very attentive in looking for prey for a while but soon her priorities seemed to change.\u00a0 She yawned very enthusiastically…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"rough-legged-hawk-6535\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a01\/2500, f\/8, ISO 400, 500 f\/4<\/em><\/p>\n

and then with this pose I knew that preening would be the next order of business.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"rough-legged-hawk-6691\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a01\/1250, f\/8, ISO 400, 500 f\/4<\/em><\/p>\n

And preen she did, for a good long while and I noticed something I’d never seen before when she got to her tail feathers.\u00a0 I’ve watched many species preening up close and when they get to their wing primaries and tail feathers they pull the feather through the bill to “re-lock” the hooks between the barbs that have been pulled apart.\u00a0 This is typically a very quick action that begins at the base of the feather and ends at the tip in a steady motion with the feather snapping away from the bill at the end of the process.\u00a0 Not so with this bird.\u00a0 When she would get to the tip of the feather she would stop, just as you see in the pose above, with the feather tip in the bill for several seconds without moving.\u00a0 Then she would release the feather.\u00a0 I found it very interesting (I’m intrigued by bird\u00a0behaviors)\u00a0but maybe shouldn’t have blathered\u00a0on about it here.\u00a0 Made for a good photo op though…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"rough-legged-hawk-6737\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a01\/1000, f\/8, ISO 400, 500 f\/4<\/em><\/p>\n

Then a good shake\u00a0and slight wing lift\u00a0to get everything arranged comfortably and preening was complete.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It always gives me the warm fuzzies when\u00a0a truly wild bird like this is so accepting of my presence.\u00a0 We spent a long time with this hawk and she was still there when we left.\u00a0 We had a lunch appointment with a dear friend we hadn’t seen in a long time and had to leave.\u00a0 Justina – here’s evidence of just how badly we wanted to see you again.\u00a0 We wouldn’t have left this\u00a0hawk for just anybody…<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Addendum:\u00a0 I’m adding one more photo (of dubious image quality) with an accompanying question.\u00a0 My curiosity has been piqued…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"rough-legged-hawk-5951\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Soon after we first\u00a0approached this bird she gave us this pose and I can’t quite figure it out.\u00a0\u00a0Given the head angle I don’t\u00a0think it was a yawn.\u00a0 I’ve seen many birds, including raptors,\u00a0expelling or attempting to expel\u00a0pellets but none of her other body language indicated such an attempt.\u00a0 I also wondered if this was some kind of a threat display toward us since we were fairly close but we’d already been in our position (in the vehicle) for seven minutes and she seemed very comfortable with us during that entire\u00a0time.<\/p>\n

Does anyone have an educated guess (or better) about what was going on here?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a previous post\u00a0I mentioned that I had been encouraged by the number of Rough-legged Hawks\u00a0(roughies) I’ve been seeing this fall.\u00a0 Well I’m delighted to report that the situation continues to improve.\u00a0 On virtually every photo expedition over the last few weeks I’ve seen several of them and on two recent trips\u00a0we’ve made about a dozen sightings of different individuals each time.\u00a0 However getting good photos of them is a different story altogether.\u00a0 \u00a0After a season in the high arctic they’re very unapproachable and even when I have been able to get reasonably close they’re usually perched on an unattractive sign or post and take off away from me.\u00a0 All that changed a few days ago though when\u00a0we found one very cooperative bird.\u00a0\u00a0This species has the most different male and female plumages (sexual dimorphism)\u00a0of all our buteos and I’m\u00a0quite sure this\u00a0is a light phase female.\u00a0   \u00a01\/1000, f\/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc We first spotted this bird on a low\u00a0wooden post that resembled a piling and I was pleasantly surprised that it let us approach (in my vehicle) with no signs of nervousness.\u00a0\u00a0 It was early on a cold, frosty\u00a0morning and\u00a0while looking through the viewfinder I assumed\u00a0that the\u00a0material on top of the post was spider silk that had collected dew and then frozen.\u00a0 But after looking at the photos at home I wasn’t so sure so the next day I walked over to the post to check it out.\u00a0\u00a0 Duh – should have known.\u00a0 It was\u00a0 frosted bison fur.\u00a0 This was Antelope Island…<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,334,337,395,358],"tags":[31,534,255,269,276],"class_list":["post-3223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-antelope-island","category-birds","category-diurnal-raptors","category-miscellaneous","category-rough-legged-hawks","tag-antelope-island-2","tag-buteo-lagopus","tag-preening","tag-rough-legged-hawk","tag-sexual-dimorphism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-PZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3223","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=3223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}