![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-7471b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-7471b-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nPlus my first Rough-legged Hawks of the season and a report on the drastic changes at Bear River MBR.<\/p>\n
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1\/4000, f\/7.1, 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 This dark red color morph has become my favorite of all the variations of Red-tailed Hawks and that includes the Harlan’s. I don’t see\u00a0these dark red\u00a0birds\u00a0very often and I think they’re striking and unusually handsome.<\/p>\n I photographed this one yesterday morning\u00a0along the approach road to Bear River MBR. I wasn’t close enough for\u00a0great detail while the bird was perched but I was hoping\u00a0it would take off in my direction and eventually it did just that.<\/p>\n I always\u00a0look forward to opportunities like this one because with all those twigs behind the bird it was unlikely to take off away from me so I could anticipate and prepare myself for it taking off generally in my direction.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/7.1, 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 The advantage to it not being particularly close was I had less chance to clip body parts when it took off.\u00a0Too often I cut off the tips of the wings with this posture.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/7.1, 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 I was lucky that the hawk kept its head turned to our left so we could see the eye throughout the entire series.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, f\/7.1, 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 This bird has the red tail dorsally of the adult but the light eye of the juvenile so it’s probably best called a sub-adult rather than a juvenile.<\/p>\n Bear River MBR was a study in contrasts yesterday – some of them positive and others not so much. For the first time all spring and summer the units near the auto-tour route have water in them. Lots of water,\u00a0more water than I’ve ever seen in those locations! And they’ve burned so many phrags that many areas don’t look at all like they used to. The views are expansive because the tall phrags are gone but there’s sure a lot of habitat gone too. Thankfully\u00a0the habitat\u00a0will recover quickly in the spring and the invasive phrags should be\u00a0greatlly reduced.<\/p>\n I’ve been visiting the refuge since the late 60’s and I don’t remember ever seeing fewer birds than I did yesterday morning. I imagine that’s at least partly a function of their phrag control efforts (burning and grazing cows)\u00a0and it should only be temporary. But for now\u00a0seeing so much water and so few birds at the refuge\u00a0seems\u00a0strongly counterintuitive to me. And depressing.<\/p>\n One of the very few highlights of my morning was seeing my first of season Rough-legged Hawks – three of them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1600, 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 The only photos I got were of this\u00a0bird and they were worse than mediocre but they do document their presence on the refuge now, especially considering the sign it was perched on.<\/p>\n I can’t tell you how happy I was to see those three birds. Since the Swainson’s Hawks left for the winter our buteo populations have been greatly reduced and I always look forward to the return of the Roughies to help fill the void.<\/p>\n Our skies would seem empty and much diminished without soaring hawks.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Plus my first Rough-legged Hawks of the season and a report on the drastic changes at Bear River MBR.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-7472b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-7472b-ron-dudley\\"")
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