First Winter Ferruginous Hawk In The West Desert

First winter light morph Ferruginous Hawk on a rocky hill – Nikon D500, f10, 1/4000, ISO 800, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited

Two years and one day ago I only photographed two birds on a trip out into the West Desert and this light morph Ferruginous Hawk made the trip well worth the journey out into the cold. When I first spotted this young hawk it was perched on top of a hill with the snow covered Stansbury Mountains in the background. The young hawk was quite sticky and at first I thought it was because it was extremely cold that morning but in a few minutes I knew the reason why this large raptor was sticky, it was because it was getting ready to expel a pellet. I watched through my viewfinder as the expelled pellet rolled down the hill into a patch of snow.

First winter Ferruginous Hawk in front of snowy mountains – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/8000, ISO 800, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited

After expelling the pellet of undigested fur and bones the immature Ferruginous Hawk took off and flew a short distance to the top of another hill where it landed and perched for several minutes. At times I felt like the large, young raptor was giving me the stink eye but I believe it was searching for prey in the field east of the road because when it lifted off…

First winter Ferruginous Hawk with its wings spread wide – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/4000, ISO 800, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited

It flew directly towards me where I sat in a vehicle with my lens aimed out of the window.This image is full frame and I was barely able to get the tips of both wings into it. I hadn’t share this image before because I wasn’t sure I liked how the hawk seemed to blend into the rocks behind it but after processing it I decided that I like it, a lot.

The Ferruginous Hawk flew so close to me that I couldn’t focus on it when it flew over the vehicle. I did get several out of focus images where all I could see was the tail and feet of the hawk.  I could see out the windows that the Ferruginous Hawk aborted its attempt to capture prey and then it flew off to land on a fence post that was too far away to photograph.

One good bird can make my day. This Ferruginous Hawk was that bird.

Life is good.

Mia

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