![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/red-tailed-hawk-4664-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-4664-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nReaders may remember that over the last couple of years I’ve become enamored with a certain rufous female Red-tailed Hawk. She and her mate have used the same area in northern Utah for nesting for two years in a row so yesterday morning I was on a quest to find her again. After all, it’s that time of year.<\/p>\n
But sadly I struck out. She was nowhere to be found and my entire morning was filled with near-misses and bad luck.<\/p>\n
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1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n I had two potentially productive chances with red-tails taking off or in flight and neither one of them panned out. This shot is as close as I came to success. I like most everything about this photo except for the takeoff\/head angle of the hawk. The bird took off slightly away from me and was looking even more to her right so I’m just not happy with the shot. If she had only turned her head my way a few degrees it would have made a huge difference.<\/p>\n Only one thing out of many has to go wrong to make the difference between an excellent photo and one that is barely a keeper.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So when I arrived home I did the next best thing and looked through some of my older photos of the rufous red-tail I’d been looking for yesterday that I’d never posted before. These are two of them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Almost exactly one year ago I photographed her soon after she launched from the side of a cliff. In this situation with the background so close to the bird it’s very easy (unbelievably so) for my focus points to lock onto the background instead of the bird so I was delighted that she turned out to be sharp.<\/p>\n It may not be the most attractive background but if nothing else the shot is testament to the possibility that my skills may be improving. Or perhaps I just got lucky.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, 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 She was sharp in the next shot in the burst also. She was fairly close to the lower left corner of the frame so I don’t have an ideal composition but I think it works well enough.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n My bad luck yesterday morning wasn’t confined to raptors. I had two opportunities with male Ring-necked Pheasants in beautiful light and in interesting settings but each time they flew or moved off just before I could get my lens on them.<\/p>\n Another male pheasant flew directly across my windshield while I was driving, so close I had to slam on my brakes so everything in my pickup went flying. Thankfully my 500mm lens was secure in my strapped-down lens caddy on my seat but that’s not the case with my smaller 100-400 zoom lens that was laying in the passenger seat. That lens and camera went crashing to the floor which really got my attention. Thankfully neither was damaged.<\/p>\n But later in the morning while I was driving about 30mph on the remote road another male pheasant flew up from the left edge of the road and crashed into either my left front quarter panel or my tire. I couldn’t see it hit my pickup but I heard and felt the thump and fully expected to see the pheasant in my rear view mirror dead or dying on the road. I was pleasantly surprised when it flew off, apparently not seriously injured.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Those pheasant experiences gave me something to think about during the long drive home.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Twenty some years ago my parents moved from Colorado to Utah to live with me for what turned out to be the last five years of their lives. I drove the largest truck available from U-Haul filled with everything they owned from Olathe, CO to Salt Lake City. Near Provo UT on I-15 while I was driving about 70mph this male pheasant flew up, glanced off of the right side of the windshield and ended up being embedded in the passenger side mirror of the truck. The windshield didn’t break but that big mirror was completely destroyed.<\/p>\n This photo was taken in front of my house before we unloaded the truck. It’s poor quality but you get the idea. I was financially responsible for any damage to the truck so when I returned it to U-Haul I fully expected to cough up some cash to replace the mirror and have it installed.<\/p>\n But the guys at U-Haul let me off the hook. Any guesses as to why?<\/p>\n Turns out that 4 of the 5 U-Haul employees were fly fishermen and they wanted the pheasant feathers to tie flies. I just left the truck and the pheasant with them (still stuck in the mirror) and got the hell out of there with my wallet intact.<\/p>\n Luck comes in different forms, doesn’t it…<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Note: All this talk about luck has me thinking about our recent loss of Kenny Rogers (probably because of his excellent song “The Gambler”.) I always enjoyed his music and even saw him perform when he was with Kenny Rogers And The First Edition (comedian Pat Paulsen was “running for President” at the time and he was the opening act.).\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/red-tailed-hawk-7948-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-7948-ron-dudley\\"")
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