![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/rough-legged-hawk-6663-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"rough-legged-hawk-6663-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nThis is a test of the Feathered Photography Broadcasting System. More about that at the end of this post.<\/p>\n
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1\/1600, f\/8, ISO 400, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n I photographed this\u00a0Rough-legged Hawk in November\u00a0six years ago near the marina on Antelope Island. It was among the most cooperative roughies I’ve ever encountered\u00a0because it allowed a close approach as it was preening for an extended period of time. I had good light, a low angle on the bird, an acceptable perch, I like the complementary background and man, did it ever give me some interesting\u00a0poses.<\/p>\n Here the bird was accomplishing a specific task as it drew the length of each individual tail feather through its bill. During everyday\u00a0wear and tear\u00a0the barbs in the flight feathers become separated from each other when microscopic hooks on the barbules are pulled apart leaving gaps in the feather vane that make the feather less aerodynamically efficient. Pulling the feather through the bill effectively “re-hooks” the hooks and repairs the damage. This result can be accomplished again and again over time, just like the component parts of Velcro can be repeatedly pulled apart and then reattached. Here the hawk has already worked over the upper tail feathers but still has the bottom four to go. The difference between them is obvious.<\/p>\n I’ve never posted this image before (though long ago\u00a0I did post a similar photo)\u00a0because I’m not fond of “squarish” compositions and this is all of the room I have on the left. But last night\u00a0I dinked around with it for a while and came up with this version that isn’t quite square (it’s 900 x 797 pixels) so it works a little better for me. I wanted to salvage the\u00a0photo because I’m so very fond of the pose and behavior. Typically they’d\u00a0have\u00a0either\u00a0their eyelid or membrane closed during this process so I was\u00a0pleasantly surprised\u00a0to get a good look at the eye and I even have a catch light.<\/p>\n And that makes me happy.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n Note: Yesterday afternoon I had a glitch of unknown origin in Feathered Photography. After working just fine for most of the day yesterday’s post wouldn’t load for me, for Mia or for some of my viewers even though others could load it just fine and older posts also loaded without a problem. Some of us could\u00a0only get this error message: “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute”. Several hours later things returned to normal and even Bluehost (my web hosting service) couldn’t figure out the source of the problem.<\/em><\/p>\n So I’m a little bit nervous that it may happen again today\u00a0with this post. If it does you obviously won’t be able to notify me until after the fact but please let me know when everything’s working again. I’d also be interested in knowing if you had problems yesterday afternoon. I’ll be involved with appointments for\u00a0most of the morning (of course, since it’s our first day of\u00a0good light in weeks and I can’t go shooting)\u00a0so I may not be able to respond immediately. <\/em><\/p>\n