Quite often I don't have much time at all to get ready to take images because you need to get close to the subject, find a good angle of light and make sure your camera settings will produce the best image for the conditions.
Yesterday on the local news I saw that Governor Herbert offered to fund the reopening of Utah's five National Parks which are Zion, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Arches and Capitol Reef.
It has been quite some time since I posted a Bald Eagle here so today I present this adult in a landing pose that I photographed in February of 2011 at Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area.
And it won't be long before I am photographing wildlife in drifts of snow and birds on perches covered in white.
Rough-legged Hawks are on their way south from their Arctic breeding grounds and will soon be making their appearance here in Utah.
One of the juvenile Red-tailed Hawks I photographed on Antelope Island last year has "migrated" to Switzerland where my photo of it will be featured on a 5 x 15 meter sign for a yacht company.
A bald red head, dark plumage and a white tipped bill isn't something that most people think of as handsome, regal or even good looking but Turkey Vultures are awesome at what they do.
Yesterday was frustrating for me near Snowville, Utah because there were raptors all around but not many of them were close enough to photograph and the ones that were close were either vey skittish or wouldn't fly off of the power poles even after long periods of time.
Since my first visit to the Centennial Valley of Montana on June 18, 2010 I have wanted to photograph a bird; preferably a raptor, on the reddish orange lichen covered rocks found throughout the valley. On this last trip that finally happened!
There are five recognized subspecies of Red-shouldered Hawks with the Florida Red-shouldered Hawks having the palest heads and plumage. I believe this Red-shouldered Hawk adult is from the Florida race, Buteo lineatus extimus.
It won't be long before Swainson's Hawks start to migrate to South America and some may already have started their journey south.
The dark morph Ferruginous Hawk above had just lifted off from a power pole when I photographed it with a partly cloudy sky in the background.
Last month while up in Montana I saw this young Red-tailed Hawk just standing in the road looking around and not acting the least bit concerned about the pickup or the two large lens that were pointed at it.
Like this handsome Ferruginous Hawk that I photographed in the centennial Valley of Montana... On The Wing Photography has landed!
Ferruginous Hawks west of the Continental Divide prefer rabbits as prey so what you see here might be the last thing a Cottontail or Jackrabbit might see.
Many of the adult Red-tailed Hawks that I saw and photographed in southwestern Montana on my last trip had worn feathers and were molting.
Red-tailed Hawks have the most variable plumages of North American hawks but Swainson's Hawks are also pretty variable, there are light morphs, intermediate morphs and dark morphs.
This adult Red-tailed flew by at close range which gave me a very nice view of the underside of its wing that shows it was also molting though it didn't look as raggedy as some of the other adult Red-tailed Hawks looked.
I photographed the adult Swainson's Hawk above after it had lifted off from a power pole in Beaverhead County and loved that I had thin clouds in the background which is far more pleasing to my eye than plain blue sky.
I readily admit that sometimes I daydream about being able to fly like a bird and quite often the bird I wish I were is a Red-tailed Hawk.
Last week while photographing in a canyon in the Stansbury Mountains in Tooele County, Utah I spotted this Turkey Vulture roosting in a dead tree in morning light.
I wanted to share some bird lift off images today so I rounded up a few that showed different styles of lift offs.
I love the raised wings of the Ferruginous Hawk, the bright blue sky with just a hint of clouds and the regal raptor soaring above me and the Stansbury Mountains in Tooele County, Utah
There are issues with this image which I will cover shortly but I really liked the pose of this Red-tailed Hawk, the spread of the wings, the flared tail and the great eye contact I was able to capture as the Red-tail looked down towards me as it flew in a bright blue Montana sky.
I photographed this mated pair of Red-tailed Hawks last week in western Montana as they soaked up the warming rays of the morning sun.
I've just returned from spending six wonderful days photographing in western Montana, the weather was lovely, the scenery spectacular and the birds; as usual, were awesome including these two Swainson's Hawks.
Ferruginous Hawks fascinate me, they are large, handsome and regal raptors. This one just appears to me to be surveying its kingdom from the top of a ranch gate in the Centennial Valley.
Buteos are medium to large hawks with broad wings, wide bodies and short tails that soar in wide lazy circles and most often hunt from a high perch from which they drop down to their prey.
Sometimes I take the shot despite knowing that I am not shooting in optimal conditions, most of the time the results are awful but once in awhile I actually enjoy the final image.
Last year at about this same time these Ospreys were busy building their nest while this year they were already sitting on eggs at Flaming Gorge.