Adult Male Rough-legged Hawk Perched On A Russian Olive

Male Rough-legged Hawk perched on a Russian Olive tree – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/4000, ISO 500, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited

On the sixth and seventh of January I saw plenty of Rough-legged Hawks at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge but I wasn’t able to get high quality images of most of them.

Loud crunching snow and ice, not being able to get close enough before they lifted off, not seeing the bird until it was too late, getting too close and bad light angles were among the reasons some of the opportunities were missed and that some of my images that I actually was able to take were not the best quality and those digital disasters will be tossed into my delete bin.

I also had issues related directly to heat wave distortion on an adult female Rough-legged Hawk that was resting on top of the observation tower at the start of the auto tour route. I could see through my viewfinder that those images were going to be disappointing because my camera struggled to lock onto the hawk.

But on the way to the interstate on the 7th I spotted a Rough-legged Hawk landing on top of a Russian Olive tree while it was being harassed by a Northern Harrier. When the harrier flew off the light morph adult male Rough-legged Hawk stayed on the olive tree for a couple of minutes which allowed me to focus on him. I was grateful that there was a little bit of a breeze because I could see through my viewfinder that I wasn’t having issues with heat wave distortion and that my images of this handsome male Rough-legged were sharp.

I could wish that there weren’t any branches in front of the hawk but honestly it just felt good to not have something happen to ruin my opportunity to photograph this Rough-legged Hawk.

Life is good.

Mia

Click here to view more of my Rough-legged Hawk photos plus facts and information about this species.