![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/swainsons-hawk-7120-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"swainsons-hawk-7120-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nYesterday morning I finally found a few cooperative Swainson’s Hawks. This is one of them.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1\/4000, f\/7.1, 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 As I was driving south on a remote road I passed this intermediate morph Swainson’s Hawk and its apparent mate perched on the right side of the road. They were both close to the road and in good light and they didn’t spook when I passed them so darn right, I turned around for them. Earlier in the morning I’d passed quite a few Swainson’s Hawks but most were perched on utility poles so finding these hawks, one of them on a sagebrush perch, was more than I could resist. And they both stuck as I approached them once again, this time from the south.<\/p>\n I like the photo for a variety of reasons, chief among them the fact that the hawk looks so comfy and content. It really pleases me when my avian subjects accept my presence so completely.<\/p>\n It was a photographically successful morning for raptors but my elation was seriously dampened by my own careless mistake. I took almost as many potentially very good photos with my smaller lens and backup camera as I did with my primary birding rig but somehow, soon after I took both memory cards into the house after I got home, I misplaced one of them and haven’t been able to find it. I’ve torn this place apart looking for it but to no avail. I’d be embarrassed to tell you all the time I’ve spent, and all the crazy places I’ve looked, including going through two disgusting cans of trash piece by soggy and sometimes ‘aromatic’ piece.<\/p>\n In over 13 years of photographing birds this is the first time I’ve lost a memory card before I’ve downloaded its images. Maybe it’ll eventually turn up and maybe it won’t but either way I’ll regret my stupid mistake for a very long time.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yesterday morning I finally found a few cooperative Swainson’s Hawks.<\/p>\n