Since my first visit to the Centennial Valley of Montana on June 18, 2010 I have wanted to photograph a bird; preferably a raptor, on the reddish orange lichen covered rocks found throughout the valley. On this last trip that finally happened!
Last month while up in Montana I saw this young Red-tailed Hawk just standing in the road looking around and not acting the least bit concerned about the pickup or the two large lens that were pointed at it.
Many of the adult Red-tailed Hawks that I saw and photographed in southwestern Montana on my last trip had worn feathers and were molting.
This adult Red-tailed flew by at close range which gave me a very nice view of the underside of its wing that shows it was also molting though it didn't look as raggedy as some of the other adult Red-tailed Hawks looked.
I readily admit that sometimes I daydream about being able to fly like a bird and quite often the bird I wish I were is a Red-tailed Hawk.
There are issues with this image which I will cover shortly but I really liked the pose of this Red-tailed Hawk, the spread of the wings, the flared tail and the great eye contact I was able to capture as the Red-tail looked down towards me as it flew in a bright blue Montana sky.
I photographed this mated pair of Red-tailed Hawks last week in western Montana as they soaked up the warming rays of the morning sun.
Buteos are medium to large hawks with broad wings, wide bodies and short tails that soar in wide lazy circles and most often hunt from a high perch from which they drop down to their prey.
Sometimes I take the shot despite knowing that I am not shooting in optimal conditions, most of the time the results are awful but once in awhile I actually enjoy the final image.
This is a rather short tale about a Red-tailed Hawk although the tail of the Red-tailed Hawk is no shorter than any other Red-tailed Hawk.
This time of the year I start dreaming about the Centennial Valley of Montana and of the birds that call the valley home during the summer.
Tooele County beckoned yesterday and I am glad it did because of coming across this adult Red-tailed Hawk.
The weird Canada Geese behavior on the top of the cliff led me to finding a Red-tailed Hawks nest though and I am tickled about that.
Just a simple juvenile Red-tailed Hawk this morning that I took last year on Antelope Island State Park as it flew past me with the dark Farmington complex rocks in the background.
Just a few Red-tailed Hawk images that I have been meaning to process and share.
Today I thought I would post images of the juvenile Buteos that I see most often in Utah and Montana, they are Red-tailed, Rough-legged, Ferruginous and Swainson's Hawks.
I haven't had many opportunities to photograph the Harlan's subspecies of the Red-tailed Hawk so I was thrilled yesterday when I spotted a juvenile dark morph Harlan's Hawk feeding on a dead American Coot on the bank of a creek.
I photographed this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk flying by last month at Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area in Davis County.
I recall that when I first started photographing the juvenile Red-tailed Hawks in this area back in August that they missed their prey more times than they would capture it and now they seem to have gone the other way, they are catching the prey more than they are missing it.
These are a just few images that I have edited taken since August of Red-tailed Hawk juveniles on Antelope Island State Park.
One of the nice things about cruddy weather is that I get the chance to edit some of the images that are languishing in my files that I have taken but not gotten around to processing. Here are a few of a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk photographed in August on Antelope Island State Park.
I am a photographer who is really sick and tired of Image Thieves. I am disgusted with people who do not consider our photographic "work" valuable and that it belongs to us.
This image of a Northern Harrier and a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk in an aerial dogfight over Antelope Island State Park was taken the day before the recent snow storm started that we had here in the Salt Lake Valley over the weekend.
This juvenile Red-tailed Hawk was concentrating on some thing on the ground when I photographed it.
I went out into the west desert of Utah this morning hoping to take images of the raptors I thought I would find there to do a post on but some days though the birds are few and those that you find just aren't cooperative
Kind a of a crazy title but it is a mantra that I live by when it comes to my bird and nature photography. It simply means that unless I go out shooting I won't know what I am missing.
I had another great day with juvenile Red-tailed Hawks on Antelope Island State Park last week.
These juvenile Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) images were taken on two consecutive days last week. I'm always excited to have a bird in my view finder and when I can photograph hawks for two days in a row... I feel raptor rapture.
I had fun yesterday photographing this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) as it perched on rocks and hunted for prey. This image shows the Red-tailed coming in for a landing.
While I was away in Montana for eight days starting last week I had a fantastic time photographing this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk.