{"id":84471,"date":"2020-04-27T05:52:13","date_gmt":"2020-04-27T11:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=84471"},"modified":"2020-04-27T06:39:04","modified_gmt":"2020-04-27T12:39:04","slug":"red-tailed-hawk-flying-along-a-cliff-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/27\/red-tailed-hawk-flying-along-a-cliff-edge\/","title":{"rendered":"Red-tailed Hawk Flying Along A Cliff Edge"},"content":{"rendered":"

In effect this is Part 3 of my recent Red-tailed Hawk series.<\/p>\n

Six days ago I photographed a pair of Red-tailed Hawks in northern Utah as they mated. My first post about them included photos of the male as he flew toward the female for mating and my second post included photos of the actual mating.<\/p>\n

Today we continue the story.<\/p>\n

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Immediately after mating the male flew almost straight up to the top of the cliff above him and perched there for a few moments but he didn’t stay long. Today’s post is a series of photos of him taking off and then flying along the top of the cliff edge.<\/p>\n

My narrative will be brief. The photos speak mostly for themselves.<\/p>\n

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We have liftoff.<\/p>\n

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I skipped a frame here because his wing position cast a lot of shadows on his body. I like this next shot much better.<\/p>\n

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This photo makes me smile because it almost looks like he’s laying spread-eagle on top of the rocks.<\/p>\n

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I was amazed that he gave me a great head turn with good eye contact for the entire eleven image series. In my experience that simply never<\/em> happens – they always seem to look away at some point, sometimes for the entire series..<\/p>\n

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I skipped two more photos in the series to get to this one. There are no skips in the rest of the series. This was the only photo that was just a little bit soft.<\/p>\n

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Here his nictitating membrane is covering the front third of his eye giving him a slightly spooky look.<\/p>\n

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He was already far off the ground when he took off but the cliffs behind him are fairly high so…..<\/p>\n

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he continued to gain elevation because his intention was to…<\/p>\n

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land on top of the even higher cliff he’s approaching now.<\/p>\n

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This is the last shot I’m including here because after it was taken he quickly rose even higher so I began to cut off body parts. He soon disappeared over the highest part of the cliff behind him.<\/p>\n

Immediately after losing him I wondered if his mate might take off and follow him so I aimed my lens her way far to my left.<\/p>\n

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She was still on the rocky ledge where they had mated only moments before but she had her eyes glued on her mate as he disappeared over the cliff.<\/p>\n

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Blog followers know that I’ve been stewing about purchasing Canon’s new 1D X Mark III camera for its many upgrades, most especially for its much improved focusing abilities. But because of the current unstable world situation and after much angst I’ve finally decided that this isn’t the time to invest that much money (almost $8000 including necessary accessories and taxes) into something like a fancy-ass camera.<\/p>\n

So I was highly encouraged by this series of red-tail photos. Even though I cut off body parts in some of my photos I managed to keep focus locked on the hawk for the entire 17 photo series in spite of the very close background in many of the images.<\/p>\n

I’m impressed. I think my old 7D II did pretty damned well even though it’s nearly six years old.<\/p>\n

I can live with it for a while longer.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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Note: For anyone who missed the first two series and wants to see them consecutively I’ll include links to them below. From beginning to end the 27 photos in the three posts represent 6+ minutes in the lives of a mated pair of Red-tailed Hawks:<\/em><\/p>\n