An Immature Red-tailed Hawk On A Foggy Morning In The Mountains

Wet and bedraggled immature Red-tailed Hawk – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/640, ISO 1250, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited

There are times when one bird can make my day and yesterday that bird was an immature Red-tailed Hawk that I spotted just before heading home after a trip into the mountains that included fog and other challenges. For most of the morning there was low light because of the fog, birds were harder to see and those I did find were too far away to photograph but this bedraggled Red-tailed Hawk drying its wings on a rusty metal pole was nearly the perfect distance from the road.

Immature Red-tailed Hawk on a foggy September morning – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/1000, ISO 1000, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited

The wings, tail and breast of the young raptor could have been wet from the heavy fog or they might have been wet because of it diving into the wet grasses for prey earlier in the morning.

Initially I thought this might have been one of the immature Red-tailed Hawk siblings that I photographed in the same area nearly two weeks ago but after carefully comparing the feathers of the upper part of the chest of those two young hawks to this one I don’t believe that is the case because the markings are different.

Because of the low light I bumped my ISO up higher than I normally use to obtain faster shutter speeds.

Immature Red-tailed Hawk lifting off from a metal post – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/800, ISO 1250, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited

I am happy that I did because it wasn’t long before the immature Red-tailed Hawk started to lift off from the rusty metal pole.

Immature Red-tailed Hawk diving on prey on a foggy morning – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/800, ISO 1250, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited

And with its wings spread wide the young hawk flew directly towards the other side of the creek. It had such a look of intensity in its eyes. It knew exactly where the prey was.

Immature Red-tailed Hawk about to capture prey – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/800, ISO 1250, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited

Without flapping its wings it glided towards the creek bank.

The setting here might be a bit messy with all of the teasels in the background but the young hawk still stands out well and I love the serious look the hawk appears to have.

Wet immature Red-tailed Hawk with its freshly caught prey – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/400, ISO 1250, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited

I lost sight of the immature Red-tailed briefly because of tall grasses but it flew back up to another rusty metal pole with the prey it had captured in its talons. I wanted to clap and say “well done little one” but didn’t because I didn’t want to disturb its meal.

Immature Red-tailed Hawk eating its prey on a metal post – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/640, ISO 1250, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited

The hungry, hatch year hawk didn’t take long at all to devour its prey. I was actually surprised by how quickly it consumed it.

Immature Red-tailed Hawk after eating its prey – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/1000, ISO 1250, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited

After the immature Red-tailed Hawk finished its breakfast it flew to another perch where it fluffed and preened a little and got scolded repeatedly by a House Wren that was in the willows behind it.

Damp adult Red-tailed Hawk fly over – Nikon D500, f6.3, 1/1600, ISO 1250, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light, not baited

At one point a damp adult Red-tailed flew over but I can’t be sure if this was the young hawk’s parent or not so I won’t say that it was but the immature bird did pay attention when this adult flew by.

Wet and alert immature Red-tailed Hawk – Nikon D500, f6.3, 1/1250, ISO 1250, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light, not baited

I took my teleconverter off because I thought the young hawk might lift off or go after prey again and it had moved close enough that I knew I’d clip wing tips if I left the teleconverter on. I waited for it to lift off. And waited some more.

Immature Red-tailed Hawk in flight with branches in the way – Nikon D500, f6.3, 1/250, ISO 1250, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light, not baited

When the immature Red-tailed Hawk finally did lift off I still clipped the tips of its wings on lift off and then I had branches, grasses and leaves in front of the hawk in most of the frames I took. This photo won’t make it into my photo galleries but the rest will.

Oh well. That stuff happens in bird photography.

Life is good.

Mia

Click here to see more of my Red-tailed Hawk photos plus facts and information about this species.