![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/rough-legged-hawk-5490b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"rough-legged-hawk-5490b-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nRecently I’ve seen several “roughies” at a distance but they were only tiny specks in my viewfinder or flying away from me. Finally, yesterday morning this adult male took pity on me.<\/p>\n
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1\/4000, 5\/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 Usually when they first arrive from their arctic and subarctic breeding grounds they’re very difficult to approach. It typically takes them weeks to become acclimated to having vehicles and people nearby but this one surprised me. He was perched on an unattractive sign at Bear River MBR and wasn’t in the least bit nervous as I approached him along the auto tour route.<\/p>\n I seldom post photos of birds on signs or utility poles but my first decent shots of a Rough-legged Hawk each season are always a momentous occasion for me so I’m making an exception. I’ve deliberately cropped this photo to include the entire top part of the sign. With him looking to his right trying to minimize the sign is futile.<\/p>\n The background in these photos is the far away Promontory Mountains.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, 5\/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 But with him looking to his left I could crop differently so the ugly sign isn’t quite so annoying, although that deep shadow at lower left certainly doesn’t help.<\/p>\n For the last four or five winters there’s been a single Rough-legged Hawk using this and another nearby sign at the refuge as habitual perches and I believe there’s a strong possibility it’s been the same bird each year. When these photos are compared to some taken last winter of a roughie on this same sign their markings appear very similar and both birds were adult males. The roughie in this area several years ago was a juvenile (if memory serves) but it still could have been the same individual.<\/p>\n A week or ten days ago one of my blog readers visiting the Yellowstone area told me in an email that Rough-legged Hawks were abundant up there and likely headed my way. I got fairly close to two of them yesterday morning so I’m thinking (hoping) he was right.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Note: As a bird photographer my definition of my “first bird of the season” is the first one I get decent photos of rather than the first one I see, no matter the species. Yet another reason I consider myself to be more of a bird photographer than a birder. There are other reasons too, for example I don’t keep lists.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recently I’ve seen several “roughies” at a distance but they were only tiny specks in my viewfinder or flying away from me. Finally, yesterday morning this adult male took pity on me.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/rough-legged-hawk-5459-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"rough-legged-hawk-5459-ron-dudley\\"")
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