Cooper’s Hawk With Prey Plus An Unintentional Blur Photo
It was a bitter cold January morning in 2016 when I photographed this Cooper's Hawk on prey that I found not far from where I live.
It was a bitter cold January morning in 2016 when I photographed this Cooper's Hawk on prey that I found not far from where I live.
This particular Red-tailed Hawk has such a striking appearance and not one of the photos I have taken of it thus far show just how freaking gorgeous it actually is.
It was a wonderful morning spotting both the Ferruginous and Swainson's Hawks, seeing quite a few other first of season birds and spending time photographing the Marsh Wren while he was busy constructing his nest.
I would have been totally skunked yesterday if I hadn't spotted the top of this Red-tailed Hawk's head and some wing movement where it was buried in a sagebrush next to a hillside.
It is the time of year when Red-tailed Hawks begin to nest, by now most of them here in northern Utah have already selected a mate so they find a nesting location and start to collect nesting materials as the days grow longer and warmer.
In some shrubs next to Glover Pond I saw two sparrows and the one that quickly drew my eye was a lovely first winter Harris's Sparrow, jackpot, a lifer!
I seriously don't know why some people do the things they do and there are times that I read articles and find myself simultaneously exceedingly sad and tremendously angry when those articles have to do with the malicious, illegal killing of birds and wildlife.
These two Swainson's Hawk photos were taken in May of last year up in northern Utah from inside a vehicle being used as a mobile blind and both were photographed from the side of a road where they had become accustomed to traffic going by so they weren't skittish at all.
The Rough-legged Hawk's wings were fully extended above its body while its feet were still firmly planted on the ground and with one downward swoop of its long wings it was airborne right after this was photo was created.
One good bird can make my day... Yesterday that bird was an immature Red-tailed Hawk at Farmington Bay WMA that lifted off from a metal post and flew over the marsh.
When I can get beautiful light on a Swainson's Hawk and deeply shadowed mountains in the background Mother Nature creates the drama.
Eight days ago I spent time photographing an immature, light morph Rough-legged Hawk at Farmington Bay WMA in northern Utah.
Yesterday morning I was able to photograph an immature Rough-legged Hawk lifting off, landing and lunching at Farmington Bay WMA in northern Utah.
For several weeks now Rough-legged Hawks have been migrating into northern Utah and showing up in locations where I have photographed them for years.
I've been thinking a lot about the lone surviving Red-tailed Hawk from the nest that blew down because of strong winds earlier in June.
Yesterday was one of those days where I thought I would come home and not have any images worth keeping until I spotted an immature Red-tailed Hawk perched on a tree near the road.
North America has two hawk (buteos) species that have feathered tarsi, or legs, those two species are Ferruginous Hawks and Rough-legged Hawks.
I have wondered lately if I have gotten into a bit of a rut, photographically speaking, of always wanting to have the sun over my shoulder with "perfect" light falling directly on my subject.
Truthfully I had better luck with the moon and mountains than I did birds yesterday except for one handsome Ferruginous Hawk perched along the road near farm lands.
This juvenile Red-tailed Hawk may have looked like it was giving me the eye when I photographed it but it was actually looking for one of its parents to bring it some food.
A few days ago I saw an adult Red-tailed Hawk fly towards its nest with prey for its chicks, the prey was a duckling.
Yesterday I saw all three of the young Red-tailed Hawk chicks together perched on a fallen tree not far from where their natal nest had been before the wind knocked it down.
Yesterday I was able to photograph the largest buteo in North America, a gorgeous Ferruginous Hawk that was on top of a hill with the Stansbury Mountains of the West Desert in the background.
Yesterday morning I photographed this Swainson's Hawk while it perched on a fence post in northern Utah
I was able to point my lens at this male Red-tailed Hawk on a lichen-covered perch for a few frames before he flew away.
There is nothing special about this photo of a Red-tailed Hawk on a rock perch that I photographed yesterday in northern Utah but I quite like it for its simplicity.
Yesterday morning in northern Utah I saw about a dozen Swainson's Hawks in about 2.25 miles, some were perched, some were in flight and all of them were wonderful to photograph.
I was thrilled and delighted to photograph a very cooperative dark morph Swainson's Hawk up close yesterday morning in northern Utah.
My best find of the day was my first of the year Swainson's Hawk about two thirds of the way down the island perched in some trees near a freshwater spring.
What I didn't expect yesterday was that I would be able to photograph the Red-tailed Hawks mating on the lichen-covered outcropping but that is what happened