Good morning everyone!

I had a great time photographing three recently fledged Red-tailed Hawks from two different nests in northern Utah yesterday morning.

The two Red-tailed Hawk nests are separated by a few miles and I have been anxiously awaiting seeing the chicks leave their nests, beginning to explore their world, and to learning how to hunt on their own. My wait is over!

The northern nest had two chicks fledge and they are the shown in the top eleven images. They were very active and moved around often which is why my photos show them in many different settings.

I only saw and photographed one of the chicks that fledged from the southern nest and it is shown in the last three photos of the gallery above. I have a feeling it will be a darker morph than the older Red-tailed Hawks I photographed yesterday.

These striking young raptors have many challenges ahead of them as they learn how to fend for themselves and I wish them nothing but the best.

About my photos, some of these images are full frame, some are cropped. I was always at a respectful distance even with the close up images thanks to my long lens and teleconverter.

I was using my Nikon D500 with my 500mm f4 VR lens attached. I took some with my 1.4x teleconverter attached and for some I removed it. My settings for aperture, ISO and exposure varied and when I get time I will try to add them to the individual images in the gallery.

I could write a short article on these recently fledged hawks and my experiences with them yesterday morning but I decided to let the photos and their titles do that for me today. Click on the first photo in the gallery to start the slide show or to scroll through them. Enjoy!

Life is good. Stay safe.

Mia

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