{"id":43513,"date":"2016-11-15T06:08:18","date_gmt":"2016-11-15T13:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=43513"},"modified":"2016-11-15T06:50:49","modified_gmt":"2016-11-15T13:50:49","slug":"leucistic-red-tailed-hawk-in-flight-and-at-takeoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2016\/11\/15\/leucistic-red-tailed-hawk-in-flight-and-at-takeoff\/","title":{"rendered":"Leucistic Red-tailed Hawk In Flight And At Takeoff"},"content":{"rendered":"

This might be the most spectacular and unique raptor I’ve ever photographed or even seen.\u00a0In fact\u00a0there’s no “might be” about it – without qualification, it is. And I even got some pretty decent photos of it in flight.<\/p>\n

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\"red-tailed-hawk-8487-leucistic-ron-dudley\"<\/p>\n

1\/800, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

The excitement started yesterday morning when we\u00a0spotted something bright white in a far-away tree. My first impulse was to think it\u00a0was some kind of garbage, perhaps a plastic bag, that had blown into the tree but a closer inspection with my lens revealed it to be a\u00a0leucistic adult Red-tailed\u00a0Hawk. Boy, that got\u00a0my heart thumpin’ and pumpin’! But the bird seemed like it was a thousand miles away (this image has\u00a0been cropped significantly) and it was buried in the tree so I just sat there in my pickup\u00a0and watched the\u00a0small white speck through my lens. And drooled.\u00a0Dang I was itching to be closer to that bird!<\/p>\n

But this time the gods of photography were with me and the bird eventually lifted off and landed on a power pole next to the road I was on.<\/p>\n

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\"red-tailed-hawk-8531b-leucistic-ron-dudley\"1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

Typical of me I was fiddle-farting around with my camera settings when the hawk lifted off from the pole so I missed\u00a0those takeoff shots. But I was able to get several\u00a0photos I like as it flew down the line of poles and landed on another one. I caught the wings down…<\/p>\n

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\"red-tailed-hawk-8532b-leucistic-ron-dudley\"1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

and the wings up in the next frame.<\/p>\n

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\"red-tailed-hawk-8539b-leucistic-ron-dudley\"1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

This shot is quite similar to the second image I posted here though\u00a0the angle of attack is steeper and the wings are slightly lower.<\/p>\n

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\"red-tailed-hawk-8561b-leucistic-ron-dudley\"1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

And yup, you guessed it. I clipped a wing when the hawk eventually\u00a0took off from the second pole (that’s embarrassing after what I said in yesterday’s post…). But this dramatic\u00a0stretched-out posture reveals more of\u00a0the spectacular and unusual coloration of the bird. Note the hints of red in the tail and the dark eye indicating this hawk is an adult (and not an albino – more about that later).<\/p>\n

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\"red-tailed-hawk-8562b-leucistic-ron-dudley\"1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the hawk cleared the wire…<\/p>\n

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\"red-tailed-hawk-8566-leucistic-ron-dudley\"<\/p>\n

1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

it began to turn away from me so this is the last shot I’ll post. I only include this one because it shows us nearly all of the ventral surface of the bird.<\/p>\n

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I suspect at least some of my readers may have some questions about leucism so I include the following information for those with the interest:<\/p>\n