![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/red-ttailed-hawk-1408-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-1408-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nAnd this time she did it so well she eventually quit walking and simply flew the last leg of it. I guess she just figured she didn’t need any more practice.<\/p>\n
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1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 400,\u00a0Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 278mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Just over a year ago I spent part of a fascinating morning photographing a recently fledged Red-tailed Hawk ‘walking the pipe’, apparently just to practice its coordination skills. The bird was still very young and uncoordinated so it needed all the practice it could get. The pipe was part of an enclosure surrounding a spring to protect it from cattle damage\u00a0and none of it was level or square which will be evident in my photos (another hobby of mine is carpentry and furniture\u00a0making so ‘out of square’ drives me nuts).<\/p>\n I’m referring to this bird as a female for the sake of convenience. She walked the pipe at least three times and I’ve documented two of them previously. Here she has\u00a0returned to one end of the enclosure and is contemplating her next move.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 400,\u00a0Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 278mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n The rusty old pipe enclosure was almost 50′ long and it wasn’t easy staying atop its narrow, curved surface for its entire length\u00a0so she always placed her feet very deliberately. But she still had to…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 400,\u00a0Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 278mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n use her wings for assistance at times. Here her right foot has begun to slide off the far side of the pipe<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 400,\u00a0Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 278mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n But during this attempt she always recovered nicely. Several times on her previous attempts to walk it she very nearly fell off.<\/p>\n In fact, she was apparently so proficient at it by now that she…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 400,\u00a0Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 321mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n figured that this pipe-walking thing was becoming old hat so she simply lifted off and flew to the other end of the enclosure.<\/p>\n This pipe journey wasn’t quite so dramatic or as much fun to watch as some of her previous attempts because her developing skills led to fewer near-catastrophes (almost falling off) but I thought this\u00a0one was worth seeing as evidence of how quickly she learned.<\/p>\n If you’ve never seen her previous attempts they can be seen here<\/a> and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" And this time she did it so well she eventually quit walking and simply flew the last leg of it.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-1409-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-1409-ron-dudley\\"")
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