![\"rough-legged](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/rough-legged-hawk-1951-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThis was the most cooperative Rough-legged Hawk in flight I’ve ever photographed.<\/p>\n
It was kiting in the wind as it hunted voles along the Antelope Island causeway and it virtually ignored the traffic and people along the road. I spent an unbelievable\u00a029 minutes with it as it hunted, often almost motionless in the air for long periods of time, and dove on prey. I saw it catch and eat several voles in that time.<\/p>\n
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1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Usually when it caught a vole it consumed it on the spot on the ground and mostly hidden from view\u00a0but twice it lifted off\u00a0with\u00a0a rodent in its\u00a0talons and resumed kiting the causeway. One of those two voles was a baby\u00a0(pinkie) and that one was consumed in midair but this adult vole was carried for some time as the hawk kited. Maybe the bird was no longer hungry but instinctively continued to hunt?<\/p>\n Some might prefer that this image was rotated to level the\u00a0hawk in flight but I believe that this was\u00a0its actual angle of attack in the air when the photo was taken so I resisted the “rotation temptation”.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1000, f\/8, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Several times I saw the hawk lift its head and apparently look over the raised\u00a0road to the south side of the causeway. I love the pose when it did so because of the raised head and the resulting “S-curve” of its body. This posture never lasted\u00a0very long and I always seemed to be doing something else when it happened but one time I was able to fire off a burst and got several nice shots of the behavior.<\/p>\n These images were taken in 2011 and that was a good winter for Rough-legged Hawks on the island but the last few years have been a different story. Most of\u00a0these hawks\u00a0have now headed north for the breeding season so I don’t expect to\u00a0photograph\u00a0any more of them until next fall.<\/p>\n Thankfully the Swainson’s Hawks are on their way north to take their place.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This was the most cooperative Rough-legged Hawk in flight I’ve ever photographed<\/p>\n![\"rough-legged](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/rough-legged-hawk-2493-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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