{"id":94345,"date":"2021-01-30T06:02:12","date_gmt":"2021-01-30T13:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=94345"},"modified":"2021-01-30T06:15:57","modified_gmt":"2021-01-30T13:15:57","slug":"an-uncooperative-ferruginous-hawk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/30\/an-uncooperative-ferruginous-hawk\/","title":{"rendered":"An Uncooperative Ferruginous Hawk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even when birds don’t cooperate something of value can come of an encounter like this one.<\/p>\n

Two months ago just after dawn I found a Ferruginous Hawk perched on a fence post in the west desert that I had high hopes for. ‘He’ was in gorgeous warm light with mountains in the background and he allowed me to get close enough (just barely) to potentially get some stunning flight shots if he took off in an acceptable direction.<\/p>\n

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But dang him, the blasted bird kept taking off at an angle away from me.<\/p>\n

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I had to proceed on the road to get to my destination and he repeatedly landed on different fence posts in front of me\u00a0 Three times he allowed me to get close enough for flight shots but…<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

he kept taking off in a less than ideal direction. It was highly frustrating because I don’t get many chances with Ferruginous Hawks, in flight or perched.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

But the third time he landed on a post in front of me I caught him with his back to me just as he was touching down. Even though he wasn’t close it allowed me to get several photos of his entire dorsal surface with all of his flight feathers flared out in excellent light.<\/p>\n

For this version of the photo I took the liberty of removing the white tip of a metal fencepost sticking up into the frame at bottom left.<\/p>\n

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But I think a vertical composition of the same image that includes barbed wire and multiple metal posts is more interesting, even with the hand of man so prominent.<\/p>\n

Readers may be surprised that I assign any value at all to a photo like this last one. After all it can be perceived as just another butt shot where we can’t see his face, much less his eyes. But it gives the viewer a highly unusual look at the gorgeous patterns and colors of his entire dorsal surface and that’s the kind of photo I may very well wish I had down the road when I’m discussing something plumage related about Ferruginous Hawks on my blog.<\/p>\n

As a blogger about almost anything bird related I learned long ago that it’s better to have an image like this one and not use it than to wish I had a photo that doesn’t exist. To me photos like this one can almost be like money in the bank.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even when birds don’t cooperate something of value can come of an encounter like this one.<\/p>\n

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