{"id":89274,"date":"2020-09-07T05:44:24","date_gmt":"2020-09-07T11:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=89274"},"modified":"2020-09-07T06:05:38","modified_gmt":"2020-09-07T12:05:38","slug":"a-surprise-red-tailed-hawk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/07\/a-surprise-red-tailed-hawk\/","title":{"rendered":"A Surprise Red-tailed Hawk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday was a day of surprises, both good and bad, and a fair number of good birds.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"89282\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/07\/a-surprise-red-tailed-hawk\/smoky-sunrise\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/smoky-sunrise.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,643\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"1.7","credit":"","camera":"SM-G950U","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1599376564","copyright":"","focal_length":"4.25","iso":"50","shutter_speed":"0.0018518518518519","title":"","orientation":"1"}\" data-image-title=\"smoky sunrise\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/smoky-sunrise-300x214.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/smoky-sunrise.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-89282 size-full\" title=\"smoky-sunrise\" src=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/smoky-sunrise.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/smoky-sunrise.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/smoky-sunrise-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/smoky-sunrise-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/smoky-sunrise-150x107.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The first surprise was a real bummer. We’d had clear weather and bright blue skies for days and more of the same was forecast for yesterday so I headed north, far north, to look for birds. But after an hour and a half of driving in the predawn darkness it became apparent that there was ‘something’ unexpected in the air.<\/p>\n<p>It was a wall of smoke that looked like it was coming down from the north but I’ve since learned it’s from the California fires to our west. What we see in this cell phone photo taken at dawn is just the beginning of it. The smoke was weird because it was in layers and that’s unusual. Here we see a layer on the ground in the distance to the right and another layer further away and higher up. The smoke got steadily worse all day and it continues today.<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully once the sun rose above the worst of the early smoke I had reasonably good light for several hours but it’s been a foul mess out there ever since.<\/p>\n<p>My ultimate destination was a migrant trap (a place where migrating birds concentrate) that is often productive this time of year and yesterday it didn’t disappoint.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"89276\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/07\/a-surprise-red-tailed-hawk\/red-tailed-hawk-4783-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4783-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,600\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"5.6","credit":"RON DUDLEY","camera":"Canon EOS 7D Mark II","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1599379436","copyright":"","focal_length":"700","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.00015625","title":"","orientation":"1"}\" data-image-title=\"red-tailed hawk 4783 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4783-ron-dudley-300x200.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4783-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-89276 size-full\" title=\"red-tailed-hawk-4783-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4783-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4783-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4783-ron-dudley-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4783-ron-dudley-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4783-ron-dudley-150x100.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I was photographing a variety of songbirds in a clump of bushes quite close to me when an adult Red-tailed Hawk came from out of nowhere and landed on some rocks right behind the bushes. It was <em>way<\/em> too close for my 500mm lens with attached teleconverter but my bird photographer instincts took over so I fired away anyway.<\/p>\n<p>These first three photos are crap but I’m including them to help me tell the story. In this shot I was trying to anticipate where on the rocks the hawk would land and wasn’t doing a very good job of it. In this full frame (uncropped) photo all we see is the bottom half of the bird with ‘her’ legs stretched out in anticipation of landing. And some of the rocks are sharper than the hawk.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"89277\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/07\/a-surprise-red-tailed-hawk\/red-tailed-hawk-4784-ron-dudley-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4784-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,630\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"5.6","credit":"RON DUDLEY","camera":"Canon EOS 7D Mark II","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1599379437","copyright":"","focal_length":"700","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.00015625","title":"","orientation":"1"}\" data-image-title=\"red-tailed hawk 4784 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4784-ron-dudley-300x210.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4784-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-89277 size-full\" title=\"red-tailed-hawk-4784-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4784-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"630\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4784-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4784-ron-dudley-300x210.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4784-ron-dudley-768x538.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4784-ron-dudley-150x105.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I finally got most of her in the frame a millisecond after touchdown.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"89278\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/07\/a-surprise-red-tailed-hawk\/red-tailed-hawk-4785-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4785-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,602\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"5.6","credit":"RON DUDLEY","camera":"Canon EOS 7D Mark II","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1599379437","copyright":"","focal_length":"700","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.000125","title":"","orientation":"1"}\" data-image-title=\"red-tailed hawk 4785 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4785-ron-dudley-300x201.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4785-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-89278 size-full\" title=\"red-tailed-hawk-4785-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4785-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"602\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4785-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4785-ron-dudley-300x201.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4785-ron-dudley-768x514.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4785-ron-dudley-150x100.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In the next shot in the burst she’s beginning to settle onto her new perch.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"89279\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/07\/a-surprise-red-tailed-hawk\/red-tailed-hawk-4800-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4800-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,643\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"5.6","credit":"RON DUDLEY","camera":"Canon EOS 7D Mark II","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1599379464","copyright":"","focal_length":"500","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.00015625","title":"","orientation":"1"}\" data-image-title=\"red-tailed hawk 4800 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4800-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4800-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-89279 size-full\" title=\"red-tailed-hawk-4800-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4800-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4800-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4800-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4800-ron-dudley-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-4800-ron-dudley-150x107.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Even perched and without her wings out I was still a little too close to get her comfortably in frame with my teleconverter attached so for this shot and others I removed it.<\/p>\n<p>But after taking quite a few photos of her on the rocks I wanted a chance at takeoff\/flight shots if she lifted off and I was still too close for the gear I was using when she spread her wings. So I switched to my other camera with the my smaller zoom lens attached and hoped for the best.<\/p>\n<p>That ‘baby lens’ of mine has saved my ass many hundreds of times over the years and yesterday it came through again.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"89275\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/07\/a-surprise-red-tailed-hawk\/red-tailed-hawk-1218-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-1218-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,643\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"6.3","credit":"Ron Dudley","camera":"Canon EOS 7D Mark II","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1599382520","copyright":"","focal_length":"400","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.00025","title":"","orientation":"1"}\" data-image-title=\"red-tailed hawk 1218 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-1218-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-1218-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-89275 size-full\" title=\"red-tailed-hawk-1218-ron-dudley.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-1218-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-1218-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-1218-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-1218-ron-dudley-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-1218-ron-dudley-150x107.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO\u00a0 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 400mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This is my favorite flight shot after she took off.<\/p>\n<p>It’s funny, if I had clipped her wing at the frame edge it would have bothered me so much I’d have deleted the shot but having her wingtip hidden behind the rocks doesn’t bother me in the least. Go figure.<\/p>\n<p>So in the end and after all the excitement I only got one flight shot that I think really stands out. But one good shot beats the hell out of being skunked.<\/p>\n<p>Ron<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday was a day of surprises, both good and bad, and a fair number of good birds.<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/07\/a-surprise-red-tailed-hawk\/\"><span>Continue reading<\/span><i class=\"crycon-right-dir\"><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,334,450],"tags":[689,452,146,5101,451,5328,2738,311],"class_list":["post-89274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bird-photography-methods","category-birds","category-red-tailed-hawks","tag-box-elder-county","tag-buteo-jamaicensis","tag-flight","tag-migrant-trap","tag-red-tailed-hawk","tag-smoky-skies-from-wildfires","tag-takeoff","tag-utah-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-1218-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-ndU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}