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1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n This is almost certainly the oldest of the three chicks from a nest on the side of a cliff (for the sake of convenience I’ll refer to it as a male although I don’t know its sex). Until that morning I’d never seen any of the chicks off of the rock ledge the nest is on but when I arrived on site (only two days after my last visit)\u00a0this one had been exploring and I found him on a point of rocks high above and to the left of the nest on a ledge below. I’m sure he mostly climbed to get up to where he was.<\/p>\n At this point I\u00a0suspect he was already trying to figure out how in the hell\u00a0he was ever\u00a0going to safely get back down to the nest as he peered straight down into the abyss below him\u00a0(the actual nest is a little\u00a0further to our right).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n After contemplating his precarious situation for some time he\u00a0limbered up with a pretty little wing stretch before he attempted his first obstacle,\u00a0which\u00a0was to…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n jump the gap between the outcropping he was on and the top of the cliff almost directly above the nest.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n He flailed through the air a little\u00a0as he went but he…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n did make a successful landing (this image is a little soft but I decided to include it anyway).<\/p>\n I’m quite certain that at this point\u00a0he has still never made a powered flight over the wild blue yonder (so officially he hasn’t fledged yet) and this span of a few feet was probably quite intimidating to him. Gutsy little guy!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1000, f\/9, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 400mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n This image taken with another camera shows where he’s come from and how far he still has to go. His destination is the nest at lower right. One of his siblings is at center\u00a0bottom and the other one who has also been exploring, though much\u00a0more cautiously,\u00a0is somewhere in the deep shadows of the cliff.<\/p>\n The problem is\u00a0once he moves further to our right\u00a0it will be almost a sheer drop down to the nest and this bird hasn’t\u00a0fully\u00a0fledged yet so he hasn’t really learned to fly. He’s probably just realized what many human hikers and rock climbers eventually discover – it’s\u00a0usually much easier (and safer) to go up than it is to\u00a0go back down.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n He maneuvered as close as he dared to the edge of the sheer drop to the nest below and then began to tentatively\u00a0test his wings to see how they might help accomplish\u00a0whatever might be necessary to safely get down\u00a0to the nest. He was holding on with his feet and talons as best he could but he was slipping and sliding down the rock\u00a0all the same.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n At this point he’d committed himself,\u00a0gravity took over and he had to just go with the flow and see what happened.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n He instinctively turned sideways as he fell, probably at least in part\u00a0to make it less likely that he would “glide” too far away from the cliff face, miss the nest, and fall much further than he intended to. It’s definitely a long ways down if he misses the ledge the nest is on.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n I was impressed when even at this young age he “knew” to drastically\u00a0rotate his tail so that air flow would keep him close to the cliff face as he fell (this is the image I posted on yesterday’s “teaser post”).<\/p>\n And from there he simply…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n parachuted down to the nest…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n where he\u00a0landed with a plop.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Mission accomplished! (I’ve avoided using that phrase since May 1, 2003 but it seemed appropriate here). And his slightly younger\u00a0sibling watched the entire performance so perhaps\u00a0“she” learned something of value for when\u00a0her turn comes.<\/p>\n All I can say is that this little drama\u00a0was damned\u00a0fun to watch!<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n PS –\u00a0Yesterday quite\u00a0a few readers made a stab at guessing what this hawk was doing when I posted one of these images on my blog as a “teaser”. April Olson pretty much nailed it (Chris Sanborn and Dick Harlow came close) when she said in her comment:<\/p>\n And later in her comment\u00a0April also\u00a0nailed something else when she said: “If it is from the nest you have been watching it sure grew fast!” <\/em>I include the following image as further\u00a0evidence of April’s observational and deductive\u00a0skills.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/red-tailed-hawk-0004-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-0004-ron-dudley\\"")
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