{"id":58198,"date":"2018-04-11T05:53:45","date_gmt":"2018-04-11T11:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=58198"},"modified":"2018-04-11T06:12:21","modified_gmt":"2018-04-11T12:12:21","slug":"male-red-tailed-hawk-repeatedly-carrying-nesting-material","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2018\/04\/11\/male-red-tailed-hawk-repeatedly-carrying-nesting-material\/","title":{"rendered":"Male Red-tailed Hawk Repeatedly Carrying Nesting Material"},"content":{"rendered":"

After yesterday’s post featuring mating Red-tailed Hawks<\/a>, today’s\u00a0edition tells “the rest of the story”.<\/p>\n

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1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, 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

But first let’s pick up from about where we left yesterday with\u00a0the hawks mating on this\u00a0rocky outcrop some distance from their nest (I didn’t include this image in yesterday’s post). After their mating session was\u00a0concluded I mentioned that the male “flew off to contribute even more efforts to their nesting activities” which is exactly what I’ll be documenting today. During the entire\u00a0time that follows the female remained\u00a0perched on these rocks and\u00a0observed the tireless (and tiring)\u00a0efforts of her mate.<\/p>\n

Some of the following photos are only of marginal quality but my purpose here is to document the behavior of the male so I’m not particularly concerned about image quality. All\u00a0photos are presented in the order they were taken.<\/p>\n

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1\/3200, f\/7.1, 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 the male left the female he almost immediately began an extended period of nest-building. He repeatedly flew onto or just behind a nearby hill to gather sticks, twigs and grasses and then\u00a0carried them to the nest. I often couldn’t see him clearly or at all while he was on the ground so…<\/p>\n

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1\/2000, f\/7.1, 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

my best chances of photographing him with nesting material were while he was in flight and on his way to the nest. This was the first stick he picked up after the mating.<\/p>\n

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1\/2500, f\/7.1, 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

Six frames later he passed closer between me and the hillside. I nearly always prefer backgrounds other than homogenous sky so most of the photos I’ve chosen to present have the hill in the background but that presents its own problems. With the background so close\u00a0to the hawk its quite difficult to keep sharp focus on a bird in flight but I thought this one was sharp enough.<\/p>\n

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1\/2000, f\/7.1, 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 quickly arranged the stick on the nest (most of which I cannot see well) and took off for more nesting material.<\/p>\n