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<\/p>\nFor the past few weeks I’ve been working a pair of juvenile Red-tailed Hawks with varying degrees of success.\u00a0 Mostly they’re just toying with me – staying just out of range or on the wrong side of the road in poor light.\u00a0 But on two mornings the lighter colored of the two birds put on quite a show.\u00a0 It chose to do its “sit and wait” hunting from a series of dark rocks close to the road and didn’t seem to care that I was there.\u00a0 And close.<\/p>\n
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\u00a01\/2000. f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, not baited<\/em><\/p>\n The rocks are on the side of a small mountain with vole-laden prairie grass\u00a0between me and\u00a0the hawk\u00a0so the bird would perch on them and then take off for prey it spotted\u00a0– often in my general direction.\u00a0 The prey is presumable nearly always voles though these young birds are\u00a0usually unsuccessful.\u00a0 It did catch and eat a small snake once but the action was buried in the grasses.\u00a0 I’ve yet to see it actually catch a vole and that makes me\u00a0feel sympathy for the hawk but on the other hand all these attempts at prey\u00a0have given me some nice photo\u00a0ops.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/2000. f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, not baited<\/em><\/p>\n Usually the setting had grass and\/or rocks in the background\u00a0and\u00a0often it was close enough to the hawk to make focus-lock difficult but here the background was a little further away.\u00a0 On both days by the time the bird cooperated the sun was high enough that the underside was typically in shade but the\u00a0dead grasses are light enough in color\u00a0that they reflect\u00a0sufficient light\u00a0upwards to provide some detail in the shadows.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/2000. f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, not baited<\/em><\/p>\n Only one time did I get blue sky in the background as the hawk soared downward toward the grasses and prey it had spotted.\u00a0 It came so close this time that the bird almost filled my frame but it never took its eye off the prey to check me out as it passed.\u00a0 That’s concentration!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/2000. f\/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, not baited<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0Here the hawk is coming in to land on one of the rocks but as it was actually landing it was so close that I clipped body parts in every\u00a0shot.\u00a0 Curses!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/2000. f\/7.1, ISO 400, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, not baited<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0In this image the bird had just launched from the rocks in the background.\u00a0 The last-second head turn to put light on the face saved the shot.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/3200. f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, not baited<\/em><\/p>\n Given the wing position, the direction of flight and the fact that I like the rocks below,\u00a0I decided on a slightly unconventional crop for this image.<\/p>\n I have more photos of this bird that I’ll post sometime\u00a0in the future.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n Postscript:\u00a0 Starting today I’ll include the words “not baited” in the techs under each raptor image I post.\u00a0 Baiting raptors to get the shot has become such a common (and deplorable) practice that many\u00a0folks just\u00a0assume these types of images\u00a0have been\u00a0baited.\u00a0\u00a0 At the risk of sounding\u00a0self-righteous about it I want it understood that I\u00a0do not bait – never have and never will.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For the past few weeks I’ve been working a pair of juvenile Red-tailed Hawks with varying degrees of success.\u00a0 Mostly they’re just toying with me – staying just out of range or on the wrong side of the road in poor light.\u00a0 But on two mornings the lighter colored of the two birds put on quite a show.\u00a0 It chose to do its “sit and wait” hunting from a series of dark rocks close to the road and didn’t seem to care that I was there.\u00a0 And close. \u00a01\/2000. f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, not baited The rocks are on the side of a small mountain with vole-laden prairie grass\u00a0between me and\u00a0the hawk\u00a0so the bird would perch on them and then take off for prey it spotted\u00a0– often in my general direction.\u00a0 The prey is presumable nearly always voles though these young birds are\u00a0usually unsuccessful.\u00a0 It did catch and eat a small snake once but the action was buried in the grasses.\u00a0 I’ve yet to see it actually catch a vole and that makes me\u00a0feel sympathy for the hawk but on the other hand all these attempts at prey\u00a0have given me some nice photo\u00a0ops. \u00a0\u00a01\/2000. f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, not baited Usually the setting had grass and\/or rocks in the background\u00a0and\u00a0often it was close enough to the hawk to make focus-lock difficult but here the background was a little further away.\u00a0 On both days by the time the bird cooperated the sun was high enough that the…<\/p>\n![\"red](\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-5843-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red")
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