A bald red head, dark plumage and a white tipped bill isn't something that most people think of as handsome, regal or even good looking but Turkey Vultures are awesome at what they do.
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!
There are five recognized subspecies of Red-shouldered Hawks with the Florida Red-shouldered Hawks having the palest heads and plumage. I believe this Red-shouldered Hawk adult is from the Florida race, Buteo lineatus extimus.
It won't be long before Swainson's Hawks start to migrate to South America and some may already have started their journey south.
The dark morph Ferruginous Hawk above had just lifted off from a power pole when I photographed it with a partly cloudy sky in the background.
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.
Like this handsome Ferruginous Hawk that I photographed in the centennial Valley of Montana... On The Wing Photography has landed!
Ferruginous Hawks west of the Continental Divide prefer rabbits as prey so what you see here might be the last thing a Cottontail or Jackrabbit might see.
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.
Red-tailed Hawks have the most variable plumages of North American hawks but Swainson's Hawks are also pretty variable, there are light morphs, intermediate morphs and dark morphs.
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 photographed the adult Swainson's Hawk above after it had lifted off from a power pole in Beaverhead County and loved that I had thin clouds in the background which is far more pleasing to my eye than plain blue sky.
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.
I love the raised wings of the Ferruginous Hawk, the bright blue sky with just a hint of clouds and the regal raptor soaring above me and the Stansbury Mountains in Tooele County, Utah
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.
Ferruginous Hawks fascinate me, they are large, handsome and regal raptors. This one just appears to me to be surveying its kingdom from the top of a ranch gate in the Centennial Valley.
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.
Swainson's Hawks are one of the three Buteos that I see with regularity on my visits to the Centennial Valley of Montana, Red-tailed and Ferruginous Hawks are the other two.
Northern Harriers fascinate me partly because they are sexually dimorphic; meaning that the males and females look different even though they are the same species, and also because of their owl-like facial discs.
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.
The other day I came across that post and felt very embarrassed because on that post I realized I had incorrectly ID'd this bird as a 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.
This juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk was perched on a metal fence post so I opted to go for a portrait to remove the "hand of man".
Tooele County beckoned yesterday and I am glad it did because of coming across this adult Red-tailed Hawk.
As soon as this cold front passes I will be out looking for the birds of spring including these majestic Swainson's Hawks.
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.
It was the day after Christmas in 2009 when I watched this four year old Bald Eagle lift off from this pole to catch this fish in the water impoundment nearby and to my surprise it flew right back to the same pole to devour it.
This year hasn't provided me with as many opportunities to photograph Rough-legged Hawks as last winter did and before long these raptors will be heading to the high Arctic to find mates on their breeding grounds.
One of my favorite locations to photograph birds in northern Utah is Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. I've selected some of the birds there that delight and entertain me while I observe and photograph them.