![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/red-tailed-hawk-0996-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-0996-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nAt this tender\u00a0age they’re curious about everything.<\/p>\n
Last spring and summer I regularly monitored a Red-tailed Hawk Nest from the beginning of the nest-building process until after the chicks were fledged (from a respectful distance of course). On the morning of June 30th the nest, on a nearby cliff, was empty for the first time but I found the recent fledglings on the ground\u00a0about a hundred yards away from the\u00a0cliff\u00a0and very close to the road. Based on my observational evidence and the clumsiness of the youngsters I believe this was likely the first time they had left the nest area on the cliff.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1\/640, f\/13, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n At first they were extremely curious about my pickup on the road. The\u00a0older\u00a0fledgling had managed to perch atop a short stump that is mostly hidden in the grass while its slightly younger sibling huddled very\u00a0close by. I love their inquisitive poses with the younger bird\u00a0looking out at me from behind its sibling (almost like a human child peering at a stranger from behind his\/her mother’s\u00a0skirt) and its slightly more experienced nest-mate using parallax on me by moving and rotating its head around at differing angles. If you look (very) closely you might notice a difficult-to-see grass stem directly in front of the eye of the bird on the right. Perhaps that obstruction, within millimeters of its eye, added to the curiosity of such a young bird.<\/p>\n I spent quite a while watching these youngsters learn the ropes. The younger bird stayed\u00a0largely in the grasses as it explored its wondrous new world but the older sibling was slightly more adventurous as it repeatedly\u00a0practiced balancing on various short perches on the ground. Both birds could fly but not very well at all, especially when it came to landings which were sometimes\u00a0only a slight improvement over out-of-control crash landings. At one point the older\u00a0bird performed a “splat” landing on the side of a vertical cliff and then hung on for dear life, seeming to wonder “Why did I do that<\/em> and what in the hell am I going to do to get out of this mess?”.<\/p>\n The first year of a raptor’s life is the most perilous and their survival rates\u00a0to adulthood are\u00a0dismally low. I dearly hope both of these young birds are still with us.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At this tender age they’re curious about everything.<\/p>\n