![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/red-tailed-hawk-1157b-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 371 mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Well, I guess it isn’t really a tightrope, but it’s close. It’s a long, rusty and sloping\u00a0pipe that’s part of a rectangular\u00a0fence-like enclosure – here we see only one corner of it.\u00a0And the bird\u00a0is one of the three Red-tailed Hawk fledglings I’ve been\u00a0watching at\u00a0what I refer to as the “cliff nest” for some time. I don’t know its sex but this time for the sake of convenience I’ll refer to it as a female (Facebook blog follower Muffy S. Gately has gently\u00a0reminded me that in the past I’ve always\u00a0referred to unsexed birds as\u00a0males and that’s something I needed to be corrected on…).<\/p>\n This young hawk has only recently fledged and\u00a0she’s still awkward and clumsy – especially while trying to negotiate new obstacles and experiences. She (and both of her siblings) are flying\u00a0well now\u00a0but when they have to use their feet and balance on solid substrates they’re usually gawky, inelegant and graceless – much to my amusement.<\/p>\n Here she’s apparently decided that she wants to get to the far side of the rectangular enclosure and she’s considering walking it along the length of the pipe (she could easily fly there which I saw her do later). She actually seems to be studying her potential pathway and making a plan.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 349 mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n She couldn’t resist the\u00a0beckoning sloped pipe so she hunched her shoulders and in a bold and determined manner\u00a0set out to walk it to the other end.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 349 mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n But she ran into trouble at the get-go and had a difficult time maintaining her balance.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 349 mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Each step was fraught with peril and almost immediately…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 349 mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n her\u00a0left foot began to slip off the side of the pipe.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 349 mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Using her wings she was able to recover…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 349 mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n but the recovery didn’t last long. Once again that unreliable left foot…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 349 mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n slipped off the pipe and this time it was almost her downfall (literally).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 349 mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n She barely managed another recovery but by now she realized that she’d met her match so…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 349 mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n she gave up. She turned her back to me and studied that damned pipe again, seeming to try to\u00a0gain an understanding as to why it had been so difficult to walk. As you can see she only made it a\u00a0couple of feet before she had to abandon the attempt and she probably had at least 20 more feet to go before she made it to her destination on the far side of the enclosure\u00a0so eventually she flew to get there.<\/p>\n Given the depressing funk I was in yesterday morning (see yesterday’s post<\/a> if you don’t know what I’m referring to) this young hawk was my salvation. Her\u00a0trial on the pipe (there were several of them, actually) amused me and lifted my spirits and the long drive home was much more pleasant because of her antics.<\/p>\n Once again a bird saved my day and I thanked her out loud as I drove away from the enclosure.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" and you can probably imagine the amusing results.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n