![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-4972-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-4972-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nI doubt this red-tail was emulating Teddy Roosevelt’s ‘big stick’ ideology but if he had been his rivals would have been duly impressed. I certainly was.<\/p>\n
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1\/1600, 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 This past spring I photographed this male Red-tailed Hawk carrying nesting material to his nest. The ‘big stick’ he’s carrying is actually most of an entire dried sunflower plant from the previous year. I took many photos of him as he approached the nest but as you can imagine I struggled to get both the bird and the entire sunflower in the frame without clipping or cutting off anything. I was just lucky that the entirety of the plant and the hawk are in the same plane so they’re both sharp enough throughout their length.<\/p>\n Over the years I’ve photographed red-tails carrying nesting material in flight many times but the size of this load was a jaw dropper.<\/p>\n He really struggled to gain any elevation with it and then stay in the air. At first he was carrying the sunflower in his beak rather than with his foot but the weight of the plant combined with its air resistance pulled his head down and back to the point that he couldn’t really see where he was going so he transferred it to his right foot in flight. Red-tails usually carry nesting material in their beaks all the way to the nest but this load was just too big and awkward for that.<\/p>\n And in case you’re wondering, yes he made it all the way to the nest high on a cliff with that load.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Note:<\/em><\/p>\n Just by the nature of the photo the hawk is small in the frame so I’ve made it larger than usual – 1100 pixels on the long side rather than my usual 900 pixels.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I doubt this red-tail was emulating Teddy Roosevelt’s ‘big stick’ ideology but if he had been his rivals would have been duly impressed. I certainly was.<\/p>\n