{"id":139978,"date":"2025-02-15T02:41:05","date_gmt":"2025-02-15T08:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=139978"},"modified":"2025-07-07T12:00:34","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T17:00:34","slug":"thinking-back-male-light-morph-rough-legged-hawk-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/02\/15\/thinking-back-male-light-morph-rough-legged-hawk-memories\/","title":{"rendered":"Thinking Back: Male Light Morph Rough-legged Hawk Memories"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s February again, and that always brings this male light morph Rough-legged Hawk to my mind. For years, I could count on seeing him at a specific spot along the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge tour route. But now, I no longer live in Utah, and I haven\u2019t seen him since February of 2022.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult male light morph Rough-legged Hawk close up<\/span><\/p>\n

I believe I started photographing this hawk in the fall of 2015. He was almost always in the same area along the north section of the auto tour route, and he was usually a very cooperative bird.<\/p>\n

Plenty of other photographers took images of him too and shared them on social media, but for me, he wasn\u2019t just another Rough-legged Hawk, he was the<\/em><\/strong> Rough-legged Hawk<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

He seemed to spend his nights perched on a sign along the road. There were many times I found him covered in frost, proof that he had roosted there through the long, bitterly cold winter nights.<\/p>\n

With a slow, careful approach in my Jeep, I could get close enough to take portraits of him without causing him to take off. I photographed him in soft morning light, in snowstorms, and on frigid days when the air itself seemed to shimmer with cold.<\/p>\n

When I was alone, I often talked to him. Sometimes, he would look right at me as if he was listening. I\u2019d meet his beautiful dark eyes and wonder what he thought of me, the female dark-eyed, long-haired human with the camera who always showed up in the winter.<\/p>\n

Over the years, I must have taken thousands of images of this hawk, and I don\u2019t regret a single one. We never know when we might move or when we\u2019ll lose the chance to see a bird like this again over so many years.<\/p>\n

And I have moved on.<\/p>\n

I would have been foolish not<\/em> to take all the images I did of him. I\u2019m no fool when it comes to birds and bird photography.<\/p>\n

I had opportunities to photograph Rough-legged Hawks<\/span><\/a> at the Tallgrass Prairie in Oklahoma at the end of December and on the 1st of January, but none of those images could match the ones I took of him. No other Roughie could, either.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know what happened to this Rough-legged Hawk, and I never will, but he gave me great memories and wonderful photos.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

It\u2019s February again, and that always brings this male light morph Rough-legged Hawk to my mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":139975,"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":[124,1148,1087,26],"tags":[4004,4275,2497,4142,4033,4169,2670,4062,4094,4046,153,1648,4018,4095,373],"class_list":["post-139978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-rough-legged-hawks","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-buteo-lagopus","tag-buteos","tag-close-up","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-light-morph","tag-male","tag-marsh","tag-portrait","tag-raptors","tag-rough-legged-hawk","tag-sky","tag-wetlands","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/rough-legged-male-portrait-mia-mcpherson-7518.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-ApI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":107524,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/10\/25\/rough-legged-hawk-season-has-begun\/","url_meta":{"origin":139978,"position":0},"title":"Rough-legged Hawk Season Has Begun","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 25, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Rough-legged Hawk season has begun in northern Utah. I spotted my first of season Rough-legged Hawks on the wing last Friday.","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":"Male light morph Rough-legged Hawk on a February morning, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-adult-male-info-sign-mia-mcpherson-9795.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-adult-male-info-sign-mia-mcpherson-9795.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Hawk","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 9, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Once upon a time, and not so long ago, I could count on seeing this light-morph Rough-legged Hawk at a specific area of the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge tour route.","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":"Light Morph Rough-legged Hawk male portrait, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/rough-legged-hawk-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8147.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/rough-legged-hawk-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8147.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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