{"id":105569,"date":"2022-08-29T03:18:20","date_gmt":"2022-08-29T09:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=105569"},"modified":"2022-08-29T03:18:20","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T09:18:20","slug":"dark-morph-swainsons-hawk-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/08\/29\/dark-morph-swainsons-hawk-photos\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark Morph Swainson’s Hawk Photos"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AdultAdult dark morph Swainson’s Hawk on a wooden post \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/640, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Early yesterday morning on my way to the auto tour route at Bear River MBR<\/span><\/a> I was delighted to see and photograph not just one dark morph Swainson’s Hawk but two. The light was delicious and golden and the first dark morph Swainson’s Hawk colors glowed richly in the light of dawn.<\/p>\n

\"DarkDark morph Swainson’s Hawk turning on a wooden post \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/640, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

I didn’t have this dark morph Swainson’s Hawk<\/span><\/a> in my viewfinder for long, only a bit over a minute. In that time I took 69 photos of this striking raptor.<\/p>\n

When the Swainson’s started to turn on the wooden post I suspected that the hawk was going to lift off.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult dark morph Swainson’s Hawk prepping to lift off \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/640, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Two frames later the dark morph Swainson’s Hawk squatted low as it prepared to lift off. The hawk also loosened its grip on the old wooden post.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult dark morph Swainson’s Hawk in lift off pose \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/640, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

IN the next frame the adult Swainson’s Hawk was pushing its wings down to get enough air under them to lift off.<\/p>\n

I was close enough to the hawk that by the next frame when its wings were lifted straight up I clipped them. Am I sad about that? Yes, a little but I was just thrilled to have this bird in my viewfinder. I love how the rest of the images turned out so all is not lost.<\/p>\n

The second dark morph Swainson’s Hawk of the morning<\/h2>\n

\"DarkDark morph Swainson’s Hawk on a National Wildlife Refuge sign \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

After photographing the first dark morph Swainson’s Hawk I started my Jeep to head up the road. To my utter delight I very quickly spotted the second dark morph perched on one of the National Wildlife Refuge signs not far away. Even though it was really just seconds later the golden light wasn’t as evident when I photographed this adult.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult dark morph Swainson’s Hawk on a National Wildlife Refuge sign \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 500, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

I stopped and took 35 photos of this adult dark morph, checked my exposure on my LCD screen and when I looked back up at the hawk it had taken flight. It made a bee-line towards the first dark morph which was behind me.<\/p>\n

I could have turned around then and been quite happy that I made the trip up to the refuge because of the two dark morph Swainson’s Hawk. I didn’t. I drove to the auto tour route. I’ll share more about my trip around the loop soon.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my Swainson\u2019s Hawk photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Early yesterday morning on my way to the auto tour route at Bear River MBR I was delighted to see and photograph not just one dark morph Swainson’s Hawk but two.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":105550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,27,1148,206,26],"tags":[4004,4200,2497,4530,5672,4033,4169,4099,7577,4104,11852,153,4681,2315,4034,8917],"class_list":["post-105569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-swainson-hawks","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-buteo-swainsoni","tag-buteos","tag-dark-morph","tag-flats","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-morning-light","tag-national-wildlife-refuge","tag-perched","tag-ranchlands","tag-raptors","tag-sign","tag-summer-3","tag-swainsons-hawk","tag-wooden-post"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/swainsons-hawk-adult-dark-morph-mia-mcpherson-8199.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-rsJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":46428,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/04\/23\/photographing-swainsons-hawks-in-northern-utah\/","url_meta":{"origin":105569,"position":0},"title":"Photographing 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McPherson","date":"April 18, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Just about one year ago I was thrilled to photograph a very cooperative dark morph Swainson's Hawk that is possibly the darkest, dark morph I have ever seen.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Very dark Swainson's Hawk","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/swainsons-hawk-dark-morph-mia-mcpherson-9068.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/swainsons-hawk-dark-morph-mia-mcpherson-9068.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/swainsons-hawk-dark-morph-mia-mcpherson-9068.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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