stunning female rufous Red-tailed Hawk<\/a> I posted four days ago. I’ve photographed her and her mate in previous years but this year she was alone (as far as I could tell) even though I found her very near her old nest. I didn’t know if I had just missed seeing her mate, or he hadn’t yet arrived at the nesting site or if he had died during the winter and she was waiting for him in vain.<\/p>\nTo my great relief I found the male yesterday morning and the two birds were together at the nesting site.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/red-tailed-hawk-6082-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-6082-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,\u00a0Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\nThis is him in all his glory as he took off downward off of a rock. I like the dramatic takeoff posture, the light on the bird and the natural setting. The hawk is a little bit past me but I think the head angle looking slightly back toward me makes all the difference in saving the image.<\/p>\n
There’s an elusive and confusing optical illusion in this photo that I can sometimes see but other times I can’t. At times his tail appears normal for an adult Red-tailed Hawk with the feathers aligned in the correct direction, each one being red on top. Other times it appears that I’m looking at the underside of his tail (instead of the top) with the feathers being red ventrally and oriented sideways. But of course that’s not the case – the tails of these hawks are red on top, not ventrally, and it’s physically impossible for the individual tail feathers to be oriented transverse to the body rather than from front to back.<\/p>\n
I can’t get my perception of the tail to change back and forth while looking at it. To get it to change I have to do something else for a while and then come back to the image. Sometimes it has changed and sometimes it hasn’t. Weird!<\/p>\n
I spent quite a while with these birds yesterday morning and took many photos of both of them but the shooting was tough because they often weren’t very close and the steep angle was hard on my still recovering back as I was shooting out the window of my pickup. My back is still paying that price this morning but I have plans to post more photos of both birds in the near future.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
PS – I’m curious to know if anyone else can see the optical illusion. This morning I can only see it “incorrectly” and I can’t get it to change back.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Plus a confusing and elusive optical illusion involving the hawk.<\/p>\n
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