But at the time those photos were taken I didn’t realize that I’d photographed the same hawk the day before as she struggled with her injured leg to establish a stable perch in a tree and then take off.<\/p>\n
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Before I got my lens on her I’d seen her land in this tree and even from a distance I could tell she was having a difficult time stabilizing herself because she continued to flap her wings long after she should have established a stable perch. It probably took me about 15 seconds to drive closer and get a better light angle on her and she was still struggling when I took this photo.<\/p>\n
She was clinging desperately to a branch with her right foot with her injured left leg hanging down uselessly. She was in quite a predicament as her body hung down far below her right foot that was grasping the perch and all of those branches and twigs prevented her from using her wings very effectively to pull herself up.<\/p>\n
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Using her right leg and wings she kept trying to pull her body up to establish a proper perch on the branch but because she couldn’t use her wings effectively or her left leg at all she was having a very difficult time.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-3238-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-3238-ron-dudley\\"")
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But she’s a tenacious young bird and she didn’t give up. Eventually (it took a while) she pulled her body up far enough…<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-3240-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-3240-ron-dudley\\"")
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to get all of her weight above the perch which allowed her the leverage required to…<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-3242-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-3242-ron-dudley\\"")
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push off with her right leg in the only direction available to her through the tangled mass of branches and twigs. I love how creative the contrasting positions of her left and right wing are which allowed her to mostly avoid hitting branches on both sides.<\/p>\n
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I had decided I wasn’t going to post any of these photos because I’d already posted photos documenting her injury and I didn’t want to have another “downer” edition of Feathered Photography. I don’t think some of my readers appreciate bad news with their morning coffee and these days there’s more than enough of that kind of news in our daily lives without me contributing to the burden.<\/p>\n
In the hundreds of photos I took of this bird over two days I never once saw her put any weight on her left leg but yesterday good friend and blog follower April Olson provided what I interpret as a glimmer of hope. April photographed this bird yesterday and posted one of her photos on Facebook. In that photo the hawk’s left leg is actually on the perch and she’s putting at least some weight on it.<\/p>\n
So maybe, just maybe, her leg is finally beginning to heal. April says she’s still “struggling” so full recovery may be a long shot but her photo still gives me hope I didn’t have before.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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PS – If you’re on Facebook you should be able to see April’s photo here<\/a><\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" And even a glimmer of hope for her recovery?<\/p>\n