When the partially leucistic Red-tailed Hawk lifted off from the power pole I was able to capture photos of it in flight and I was stunned by the beauty of the hawk, pictures do not do this bird justice.
This time of the year I see plenty of molting Red-tailed Hawks and they can look pretty tattered, worn and shabby.
While I have been photographing Short-eared Owls in northern Utah I have come across this intriguing and very tame Northern Harrier over and over in the same location.
April in northern Utah is a good time to see and photograph molting immature White-crowned Sparrows.
Antelope Island Chukars don't just attract out of town visitors to the island, they still call in locals like myself to see, hear and photograph them.
In my last post on the Trumpeter Swan Cygnets On Elk Lake I mentioned that the cygnets spent a lot of time preening and part of the reason they do is they are molting.
I am always happy to photograph Swainson's Hawks no matter where I find them so I was pleased to find this one perched on a lichen covered rock yesterday in Box Elder County, Utah.
I'm glad the Double-crested Cormorant didn't decide to relive itself as it came in to land or I might have been wearing white-wash!
Right now on Antelope Island State Park teenaged birds are molting into their adult plumage including young Black-billed Magpies.
Seriously, I wish I understood more about molting with many of the raptors including Swainson's Hawk and perhaps if I ever find some free time I will attempt to study molt patterns more closely.
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.
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.