{"id":106793,"date":"2022-10-04T04:16:08","date_gmt":"2022-10-04T10:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=106793"},"modified":"2023-10-19T03:36:18","modified_gmt":"2023-10-19T09:36:18","slug":"red-tailed-hawk-waiting-for-the-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/10\/04\/red-tailed-hawk-waiting-for-the-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Red-tailed Hawk Waiting For The Light"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-106789 size-full\" title=\"Red-tailed Hawk waiting for the morning light\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-before-dawns-light-mia-mcpherson-8034.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-before-dawns-light-mia-mcpherson-8034.jpg\" alt=\"Red-tailed Hawk waiting for the morning light, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27643%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20900%20643%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27643%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-before-dawns-light-mia-mcpherson-8034-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-before-dawns-light-mia-mcpherson-8034-250x179.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-before-dawns-light-mia-mcpherson-8034-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-before-dawns-light-mia-mcpherson-8034-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-before-dawns-light-mia-mcpherson-8034-600x429.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-before-dawns-light-mia-mcpherson-8034-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-before-dawns-light-mia-mcpherson-8034-800x572.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-before-dawns-light-mia-mcpherson-8034.jpg 900w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Red-tailed Hawk waiting for the morning light \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/250, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p>My favorite of the hawks I photographed in the West Desert yesterday was this adult Red-tailed Hawk on a fence post waiting for the morning light. I spotted the hawk near a corral from about half a mile away and hoped that it would stay long enough for me to pull into a good spot to photograph it.<\/p>\n<p>The sun was rising above the peaks of the mountains to the east and had started to light up the mountain foothills to the west. When I took this photo the morning light was just about to reach the hawk. The Red-tailed Hawk may have spent the night on the gnarly old fence post.<\/p>\n<p>Despite my best efforts, I was unable to capture this hawk in the gorgeous early light. The <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Red-tailed_hawk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Red-tailed Hawk<\/span><\/a> took flight with its back to me and flew out into the grasses far from the road as two enormous gravel trucks rumbled by on the road.<\/p>\n<p>Of all the pictures I took yesterday, I thought this one was the most appealing to me despite the poor lighting on the hawk.<\/p>\n<p>Life<em> is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/red-tailed-hawk-images\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Red-tailed Hawk photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My favorite of the hawks I photographed in the West Desert yesterday was this adult Red-tailed Hawk on a fence post waiting for the morning light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":106789,"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":[27,449,358,26,1314],"tags":[4004,970,2663,4170,2497,4098,4620,5958,7017,4033,4169,4204,4099,4104,153,4209],"class_list":["post-106793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-red-tailed-hawks","category-tooele-county","category-utah","category-west-desert-utah","tag-adult","tag-autumn","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-buteo-jamaicensis","tag-buteos","tag-desert","tag-fall","tag-fence-posts","tag-foothills","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-light","tag-morning-light","tag-perched","tag-raptors","tag-red-tailed-hawk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-before-dawns-light-mia-mcpherson-8034.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-rMt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":105685,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/09\/11\/immature-red-tailed-hawk-in-the-west-desert\/","url_meta":{"origin":106793,"position":0},"title":"Immature Red-tailed Hawk In The West Desert","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 11, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month while I wandered in the West Desert I found an immature Red-tailed Hawk perched on a wooden fence post in the foothills of some sky island mountains.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Young Red-tailed Hawk preening a single feather, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-post-mia-mcpherson-2322.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-post-mia-mcpherson-2322.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-post-mia-mcpherson-2322.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-post-mia-mcpherson-2322.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":94980,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/09\/13\/cooperative-west-desert-red-tailed-hawk\/","url_meta":{"origin":106793,"position":1},"title":"Cooperative West Desert Red-tailed Hawk","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 13, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week I photographed a very cooperative adult Red-tailed Hawk that was next to a road in the West Desert of Utah on a smoky morning.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Red-tailed Hawk adult looking over its shoulder from a juniper, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-on-juniper-mountains-mia-mcpherson-0857.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-on-juniper-mountains-mia-mcpherson-0857.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-on-juniper-mountains-mia-mcpherson-0857.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-on-juniper-mountains-mia-mcpherson-0857.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":116873,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/10\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-on-a-west-desert-weather-station\/","url_meta":{"origin":106793,"position":2},"title":"Red-tailed Hawk On A West Desert Weather Station","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 9, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A West Desert weather station wasn't the prettiest perch, but that is where I found this handsome Red-tailed Hawk last week when I went looking for birds.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Red-tailed Hawk on a West Desert weather station, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-adult-weather-station-mia-mcpherson-2185.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-adult-weather-station-mia-mcpherson-2185.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-adult-weather-station-mia-mcpherson-2185.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-adult-weather-station-mia-mcpherson-2185.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":95633,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/09\/25\/red-tailed-hawk-pre-flight-poop-shot\/","url_meta":{"origin":106793,"position":3},"title":"Red-tailed Hawk Pre-flight Poop Shot","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 25, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"When the Red-tailed Hawk took a pre-flight poop I thought I'd get my chance at those lift off and flight photos.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Red-tailed Hawk defecating prior to take off, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-west-desert-pooping-mia-mcpherson-5713.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-west-desert-pooping-mia-mcpherson-5713.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-west-desert-pooping-mia-mcpherson-5713.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/red-tailed-hawk-west-desert-pooping-mia-mcpherson-5713.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7967,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/03\/29\/adult-red-tailed-hawk-on-a-ridge\/","url_meta":{"origin":106793,"position":4},"title":"Adult Red-tailed Hawk On A Ridge","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Tooele County beckoned yesterday and I am glad it did because of coming across this adult Red-tailed Hawk.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Red-tailed Hawk right after lift off, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-adult-flight-mia-mcpherson-3138.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-adult-flight-mia-mcpherson-3138.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-adult-flight-mia-mcpherson-3138.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-adult-flight-mia-mcpherson-3138.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14626,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/03\/26\/the-courtship-and-copulation-of-a-pair-of-red-tailed-hawks\/","url_meta":{"origin":106793,"position":5},"title":"The Courtship And Copulation Of A Pair Of Red-tailed Hawks","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 26, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday I was able to see and photograph a pair of Red-tailed Hawks courting and copulating in Tooele County, Utah.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Red-tailed Hawk about to mate with the female, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/red-tailed-hawks-mating-utah-mia-mcpherson-9959.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/red-tailed-hawks-mating-utah-mia-mcpherson-9959.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/red-tailed-hawks-mating-utah-mia-mcpherson-9959.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/red-tailed-hawks-mating-utah-mia-mcpherson-9959.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}