Early Morning Immature Ferruginous Hawk In The West Desert

Early morning immature Ferruginous Hawk – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/1000, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited

I didn’t get the Brown Creeper photos I have been dreaming of yesterday but I did take lovely images of an immature Ferruginous Hawk in early morning, golden light. The hawk was perched on a new juniper fence post when I first spotted it and pointed it out. Since the temp was so cold the young bird of prey seemed sticky enough to take a nice series of photos. It even seemed to be curious about the vehicle parked on the road.

Immature Ferruginous Hawk landing on a fence post – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/1600, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited

But another car came along and flushed the young Ferruginous Hawk. It didn’t fly far though, just down to the next wooden fence post. I photographed it as it landed with the mountains in the background.

Immature Ferruginous Hawk tilting its head – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/1250, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited

After the young raptor landed on the second fence post it settled back down and seemed to relax in the warmth of the rising sun.

The immature Ferruginous Hawk tilted its head quite often, just like young Burrowing Owls do when they are parallaxing.

Immature Ferruginous Hawk with its bill wide open – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/1250, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited

When it opened its bill this wide I thought perhaps it was getting ready to expel a pellet. They sure can open their bills wide.

Immature Ferruginous Hawk preening on a fence post – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/1250, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited

For a bit the immature Ferruginous Hawk preened its feathers but still kept an eye on what was going on around it. After it finished preening it roused…

Immature Ferruginous Hawk letting poop fly – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/1250, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited

And then let some poop fly.

I missed the shots of the young Ferruginous Hawk lifting off because when I turned around to see if there were any cars coming up the gravel road it took flight.

I was excited to spot a late Hermit Thrush yesterday morning high up in the mountains and was even able to take some photos of it while it was out in the open and took a few with a brown Creeper in the background. Photos to come at a later date.

Life is good.

Mia

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