{"id":125754,"date":"2024-03-24T04:44:41","date_gmt":"2024-03-24T10:44:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=125754"},"modified":"2025-05-07T20:27:43","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T01:27:43","slug":"immature-red-tailed-hawk-in-spring-at-bear-river-mbr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/03\/24\/immature-red-tailed-hawk-in-spring-at-bear-river-mbr\/","title":{"rendered":"Immature Red-tailed Hawk In Spring At Bear River MBR"},"content":{"rendered":"

About two years ago, I photographed this immature Red-tailed Hawk near the Bear River, on my way out of the auto tour loop of Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"SpringSpring immature Red-tailed Hawk in grasses \u2013 Nikon D500, f8, 1\/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The young hawk may have missed capturing prey before I arrived at the location where they were resting on the ground in the grass. I didn’t see the bird land, so I really can’t say what happened before I stopped my Jeep on the road.<\/p>\n

That late winter and early spring, I found quite a few young Red-tailed Hawks in the same area. This year, I haven’t found a single Red-tailed Hawk near the Bear River in that area, adult or immature.<\/p>\n

That says something. The thing it speaks the loudest to me? There is a lack of prey.<\/p>\n

Raptors will not be present if there is a lack of prey.<\/p>\n

The good news is that this particular young Red-tailed Hawk, photographed in March of 2022, had survived its first winter.<\/p>\n

More than half of immature Red-tailed Hawks don’t make it through their first winter. That challenging period, especially for juveniles facing winter for the first time, results in a high mortality rate due to difficulties in finding enough food to survive.<\/p>\n

This beautiful young Red-tailed Hawk made it.<\/p>\n

But, if there is a lack of prey, for whatever reason, many more young raptors won’t.<\/p>\n

The planned inland port, which wouldn’t be very far from this spot, will have a direct impact on the raptors, as well as other birds and wildlife in the area. Utah’s policies fail to protect wildlife, the Bear River, and downstream, the Great Salt Lake.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good. However, it would be far better if Utah put nature and its citizens before money.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click 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":"

About two years ago, I photographed this immature Red-tailed Hawk near the Bear River, on my way out of the auto tour loop of Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":143293,"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":[124,27,1148,449,26],"tags":[4529,2663,4170,2497,5047,3747,4109,5943,4033,4169,4067,11852,153,4209,5558,165,4193],"class_list":["post-125754","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-red-tailed-hawks","category-utah","tag-bear-river","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-buteo-jamaicensis","tag-buteos","tag-first-spring","tag-grass","tag-grasses","tag-ground","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-immature","tag-ranchlands","tag-raptors","tag-red-tailed-hawk","tag-river","tag-spring","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/red-tailed-hawk-on-the-ground-mia-mcpherson-5657.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-wIi","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":98794,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/01\/09\/riverbank-red-tailed-hawk-dining-al-fresco\/","url_meta":{"origin":125754,"position":0},"title":"Riverbank Red-tailed Hawk Dining Al Fresco","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 9, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday morning I photographed an immature Red-tailed Hawk dining al fresco on the bank of the Bear River on my way back to I-15 to head home.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature Red-tailed Hawk eating prey on the Bear River, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, 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