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<\/p>\nI’ve been watching a mated pair of Swainson’s Hawks near Monida, Montana all summer and for several reasons\u00a0I believe their first nesting may have failed and they started over. They\u00a0are now rearing two late\u00a0juveniles that are still very young and immature for this late in the season. Neither bird is hunting on its own and both are\u00a0still awkward and clumsy though they can fly reasonably well.<\/p>\n
They spend their day perched on poles, posts\u00a0or on the ground as they\u00a0wait for their parents to bring food (voles) and they scream almost incessantly in their impatience to be fed. One of the siblings has\u00a0an injured leg but this sequence of images, taken last week,\u00a0involves the uninjured bird.<\/p>\n
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\u00a01\/1600, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon<\/em> EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n As the young hawk waited to be fed it often perched on this power pole or its crossbeam but it sometimes made short hops\/flights to different positions on the pole in an apparent effort at practicing take-offs and landings. One of its favorite places to land was on a short piece of wire stretched between two insulators just out of frame to our left. The relatively narrow wire isn’t a particularly stable perch but the youngster seems to prefer the wire over the insulators.<\/p>\n I had fun photographing these short take-offs and landings because they were awkward and included a lot of missteps and wing-flapping. Here the bird is looking at the wire just a few feet to\u00a0our left and preparing to take off and\u00a0(hopefully) land on it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/1600, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon<\/em> EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n Because the bird is young and inexperienced and because the next potential perch is so close and slightly above it, the angle of take-off is somewhat unusual. Instead of pushing off forward and down and using the force of gravity to gain momentum…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/1600, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon<\/em> EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n the hawk jumped almost straight up on the first flap of its wings.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/1600, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon<\/em> EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n In the next frame the body of the bird is still in an almost vertical position\u00a0and its eyes are still glued to the wire\u00a0out of frame to the\u00a0left. I wasn’t prepared for this vertical jump so I cut off most of the bird in\u00a0three of the following frames but…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/2000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon<\/em> EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n I decided to include this one as the hawk began to descend toward the wire because it shows the outstretched feet and the focus of its eye on the soon-to-be perch.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/1600, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon<\/em> EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n The next shot I was able to get without cutting off any body parts shows the bird just after landing as it attempts to stabilize itself on the wire. It seems to be screaming in exaltation and celebration of its landing success but I suspect it was just calling out\u00a0to its parents for more food.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It soon settled in on its perch and scanned the skies for a returning parent. The siblings were wonderful watchdogs – they always<\/em> spotted a returning parent long before I could and as a photographer who loves to photograph raptors in flight I was very appreciative of the heads-up.<\/p>\n I’m concerned about these two young birds. They just don’t seem mature enough to survive the grueling migration of the species to\u00a0South America that is already beginning and the bird with the injured leg\u00a0has an additional strike against it.<\/p>\n I hope they\u00a0both have a reasonable chance of making it. I’ve become quite attached to them.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n PS – In two of these\u00a0photos I’ve removed a short piece of wire and in one of them part of an insulator. I also added canvas to one image.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve been watching a mated pair of Swainson’s Hawks near Monida, Montana all summer and for several reasons I believe their first nesting may have failed and they started over.<\/p>\n![\"swainson's](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/swainsons-hawk-2618-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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\u00a0\u00a01\/2000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon<\/em> EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n