{"id":64222,"date":"2018-10-05T05:53:19","date_gmt":"2018-10-05T11:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=64222"},"modified":"2018-10-05T09:31:14","modified_gmt":"2018-10-05T15:31:14","slug":"red-tailed-hawks-antique-glass-and-family-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/05\/red-tailed-hawks-antique-glass-and-family-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Red-tailed Hawks, Antique Glass And Family History"},"content":{"rendered":"

The older I get the more I appreciate ‘old stuff’ with\u00a0character.<\/p>\n

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1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 400, 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 includes these very old\u00a0railroad signal\u00a0poles with antique glass insulators carrying low-voltage wires\u00a0adjacent to the Union Pacific railroad line near Monida Pass, Montana. Red-tailed hawks hunt from them regularly and since the poles are only about half as tall as typical modern power poles they make good platforms for bird photography. These photos were taken two years ago and I’ve posted other shots with hawks taking off from the poles but these\u00a0photos have never been published.<\/p>\n

Normally I wouldn’t place the bird near the center of the frame like this but I wanted to include as many of those old glass insulators as possible. These days insulators like\u00a0these are collector’s items. These power lines haven’t been used for a very long time and I fear that Union Pacific will tear them down one day. There always seems to be a few insulators missing from each pole and I have to wonder if unscrupulous collectors have been\u00a0absconding with\u00a0them.<\/p>\n

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Here’s another more traditional\u00a0composition of the same photo for those having less interest in the old poles and insulators.<\/p>\n

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\"\"1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 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

This is a different hawk just after it landed\u00a0on another pole in warmer light.<\/p>\n

The Monida area gets some of the most severe weather in Montana and believe me, that’s saying something. And looking at how much of the top pole has weathered away over the decades I have to wonder about the storms it has seen in all those years. When I was a young kid in the 50’s my family with dad driving often traveled over the pass (or attempted to) in early or late winter on our trips between MT and CA. That was long before the interstate was built and those trips\u00a0were often dicey and dangerous. These photos were actually taken from that old, mostly unused, road.<\/p>\n

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I have\u00a0a very personal interest in Monida Pass, this railway and these poles. I’ve told parts of the following story before so if you already know it or just aren’t interested in western history or my family history (the latter is completely understandable) please just skip it.<\/p>\n

This was the route of the original\u00a0Utah and Northern Railway conceived and partially built by Brigham\u00a0Young\u00a0and the early\u00a0Utah Mormons in the 1870’s but eventually taken over by Union Pacific. My great-grandfather Joseph Smith Dudley was a freighter, hauling supplies in wagons from Utah to the Montana mine fields in the 1870’s and on each of the\u00a0many round\u00a0trips he made he\u00a0crossed over\u00a0Monida Pass twice.\u00a0Joseph’s freighting enterprise was put out of business when they built that railroad in the late 1870’s so he began staying home\u00a0in Utah full-time to attend to his farm and family. But the tragic and sordid\u00a0tale doesn’t end there.<\/p>\n

In February of\u00a01879 “Killer Joe” as I affectionately call him killed\u00a0one of\u00a0his neighbors, Henry Wadman,\u00a0in a fight with 3 pistol shots. Henry had been having an affair with\u00a0Joe’s wife and he had\u00a0admitted as much to others. At trial for murder Joe was\u00a0found not\u00a0guilty for reasons related to self-defense but there was a lot of animosity in the community on both sides over the verdict\u00a0and\u00a0Joe’s “fine brick home”\u00a0mysteriously\u00a0burned down. So he eventually moved to southern Alberta to escape the notoriety and\u00a0carry on with his life with his new wife (my eventual great-grandmother).<\/p>\n

So here’s the point (and this should demonstrate how strangely my mind works sometimes). If it hadn’t been for the railroad\u00a0these power poles were associated with Joe likely wouldn’t have been in Utah to find out what was going on between his wife and Wadman. And if he hadn’t killed\u00a0Wadman he’d never have moved to Alberta to escape the notoriety\u00a0so\u00a0his grandson, my father Wayne Dudley, would never have met my Canadian mother Lorna Prince. Where would that have left\u00a0me??? When I look at these poles I’m probably looking at evidence related to why I even exist.<\/p>\n

I can’t tell you how often I ponder that vagary of circumstance when I’m camping in the area of Monida Pass and photographing hawks on these poles.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

Notes: <\/em><\/p>\n