![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/red-tailed-hawk-7761-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-7761-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nReaders may remember the mating Red-tailed Hawks I photographed back in April of this year. This is one of my favorite photos of that encounter but somehow I never posted it.<\/p>\n
So this morning I’m tying up a loose end.<\/p>\n
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1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 800, 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 The male had landed on the female’s back facing the wrong way so here he’s in the process of turning around so they can make all the plumbing work. It was an awkward situation for both birds but the female in particular was very patient with his fumbling ways as she stayed in an accommodating posture while he got his act together. He was far from quick about it.<\/p>\n In many of my shots of them mating the female’s head was in a deep shadow cast by her left wing but here I have light on her face and her head isn’t blocked by any of the foreground vegetation. That vegetation is a little annoying but these are wild birds doing their thing in natural habitat and I’m just lucky we can see them both as well as we can.<\/p>\n These may be the same birds I’ve been following this spring and early summer as they rehabbed an older nest and hatched chicks. They look similar physically but I photographed them mating about 10 miles away from where the nest is so I can’t be sure. I’m unaware of any red-tail nest in the area where the mating occurred.<\/p>\n I hope to check up on that nest soon. Last time I was there the chicks were tiny bobbleheads that I could barely see in the nest. I’m more than a little concerned about them because we recently had some wild weather with serious wind that lasted for several days and I know of at least one nest that was destroyed (yes Neil Rossmiller, I’m talking about ‘your’ nest).<\/p>\n All three chicks in that nest perished.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tying up a loose end.<\/p>\n