Immature Rough-legged Hawk in flight over a fieldImmature Rough-legged Hawk in flight over a field – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/3200, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light, not baited

Eight days ago I spent time photographing an immature, light morph Rough-legged Hawk at Farmington Bay WMA in northern Utah. I previously shared four images of this handsome visitor from the far North and thought that today I would share more photos of this bird. Prior to these images the young hawk had taken off from a kestrel nest box after prey, it missed the prey and then circled back towards the nest box and I was able to capture a great series of it in flight and as it landed.

I loved the dorsal view of the Rough-legged Hawk’s wings and flared tail in this photo.

Immature light morph Rough-legged Hawk flying towards a nest boxImmature light morph Rough-legged Hawk flying towards a nest box – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/3200, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light, not baited

Even while I photographed the hawk in flight I could see that it had it’s eyes on the nest box, was concentrating entirely on it and it completely ignored the three photographers with long lenses that were photographing it as it flew over the field.

Immature Rough-legged Hawk with its eye on its landing spotImmature Rough-legged Hawk with its eye on its landing spot – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/3200, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light, not baited

This young Rough-legged Hawk flew with such ease that even while I photographed it I marveled at the beauty of it’s long wings and the graceful flight of these raptors.

Light morph immature Rough-legged Hawk in flight heading towards its perchLight morph immature Rough-legged Hawk in flight heading towards its perch – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/3200, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light, not baited

After I took this photo I decided to pre-focus on the nest box so that I could take photos of the Roughie landing on it so I quickly aimed my lens at the box, focused and started firing when I saw the hawk fly into my view finder.

Immature Rough-legged Hawk landing poseImmature Rough-legged Hawk landing pose – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/2500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light, not baited

There was one landing image I had shared in my previous post about this Rough-legged Hawk that was taken one frame ahead of this one that showed the pin point landing and I felt I wanted to show the frame right after it because I love this landing pose with the upraised wings that I often see when Rough-legged Hawks land.

I have quite a few more images to share of this particular Rough-legged Hawk and I hope to do that someday soon. This bird really made my day.

Life is good.

Mia

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