{"id":59054,"date":"2018-05-07T05:30:04","date_gmt":"2018-05-07T11:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=59054"},"modified":"2018-05-07T07:47:21","modified_gmt":"2018-05-07T13:47:21","slug":"some-interesting-swainsons-hawk-mating-and-feeding-behaviors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/07\/some-interesting-swainsons-hawk-mating-and-feeding-behaviors\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Interesting Swainson’s Hawk Mating And Feeding Behaviors"},"content":{"rendered":"

I found some of the behaviors surprising and even a little perplexing.<\/p>\n

All images are presented in the order they were taken.<\/em><\/p>\n

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1\/3200, 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

Three days ago this Swainson’s Hawk (to me\u00a0the hawk\u00a0appears to be intermediate between a dark morph and an intermediate morph) flew across the road behind my pickup and landed with a whoomp in the grasses behind me and to my left. At first I didn’t know its sex for sure but as you’ll see it soon became apparent that it was a female. I believe she had been after prey when she landed but for a while I couldn’t tell if she had been successful because the grasses blocked my view.<\/p>\n

In the meantime her mate landed on a power pole perhaps 100 yards further to our right.<\/p>\n

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1\/2000, 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

She mostly just stood there stoically at first but soon she began calling to her mate on the pole. At one point a couple of male Northern Harriers flew over and her calling may have been directed at them for a few moments but most of the time she was obviously calling to her mate.<\/p>\n

And soon it became obvious that she had prey\u00a0when she lifted an open\u00a0foot and tried to\u00a0drop a vole to the ground.\u00a0The vole, impaled on her talons, refused to drop for a few moments and it was comical to watch her attempt to\u00a0release\u00a0it. Eventually it fell.<\/p>\n

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1\/2000, 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

In two swift motions she eviscerated the vole (it was an incredibly\u00a0fast and efficient operation) and I saw her drop the entrails to the ground. But I had my lens on her the\u00a0entire time and while she was on the ground she never did eat anything. Here she picked up the\u00a0gutted vole but she soon dropped it again.<\/p>\n

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1\/2500, 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

At one point she grabbed the vole in her right foot and then hop-flew a few feet to my right and slightly closer to her mate on the pole\u00a0and then settled down into the grass again.<\/p>\n

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1\/2500, 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

And then her calling to her mate on\u00a0the pole\u00a0intensified. I was hesitant to take my lens off her and document the far-off male for fear I’d miss her takeoff but eventually I chanced it and …<\/p>\n

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1\/2000, 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

popped off a few quick shots of him on the pole (he was a light morph Swainson’s).<\/p>\n

At that point I decided to move my pickup forward so I’d be between the two hawks and closer to the male but of course she chose that interval to take off and land in the grasses beneath and to the left of her mate so I missed getting takeoff photos of her as she did so.<\/p>\n

The photos that follow are of documentary quality only – both birds were far away and the female in the grass was behind a slight hill so I could barely see her.<\/p>\n

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1\/2000, 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

The male took off from the pole, circled around behind the female, and swooped in with the obvious intention of landing on her back for mating (as you can see she has already assumed a Solicitation Posture).<\/p>\n

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1\/2000, 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

And that’s exactly what he did – this photo was taken just as he was landing.<\/p>\n

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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

They proceeded to mate. I got many shots of the process but my active focus point kept trying to grab onto the grasses in the foreground so some of them were quite\u00a0soft. After the mating the male returned to the pole…<\/p>\n

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1\/2500, 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

and the female took the vole to a nearby rock…<\/p>\n

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1\/2500, 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

where she\u00a0gobbled it down in big chunks. But she paid a price for her “gluttony” because…<\/p>\n

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1\/2500, 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

she really struggled to get the last chunk down her gullet. She repeatedly stretched her neck and pointed her beak\u00a0skyward at an extreme angle and several times she even “scratched” her neck with her right foot in an apparent attempt to massage the chunk of food down her throat. She repeated both actions for perhaps 10 seconds before she was successful in getting the food down to her crop.<\/p>\n

After that she stayed on the rock and the male remained on the pole. Since they were far away I left the area.<\/p>\n

In my experience at least two aspects of these behaviors were new to me, including:<\/p>\n