{"id":2427,"date":"2011-06-03T05:01:45","date_gmt":"2011-06-03T12:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=2427"},"modified":"2021-03-31T17:50:56","modified_gmt":"2021-03-31T23:50:56","slug":"friday-photos-a-friendly-swainsons-hawk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2011\/06\/03\/friday-photos-a-friendly-swainsons-hawk\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday Photos: A Friendly Swainson’s Hawk"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"Adult<\/strong>Swainson’s\u00a0Hawk (Buteo swainsoni) portrait with the Great Salt Lake\u00a0in the\u00a0background – <\/span><\/span>Nikon D200, f6.3, 1\/750, ISO 400, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Last Friday I came upon this Swainson’s Hawk; not just once but twice, perched on signs very close to the road. While seeing a hawk perched on a sign isn’t all that unusual (in fact it happens quite often) having it remain on the signs while getting close enough to photograph the bird’s portrait is.<\/p>\n

This hawk didn’t seem to mind my presence using a mobile blind (vehicle). It preened, stretched, and gazed at the surrounding area. It stayed on this perch for over 5 minutes while I photographed it until a small motor home pulled up to view the bird and then it flew off.<\/p>\n

\"AdultSwainson’s\u00a0Hawk perched on a speed limit sign – <\/span><\/span>Nikon D200, f8, 1\/350, ISO 400, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 200mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Normally I prefer to take images of birds perched on natural features though I do take advantage of situations like this one to get close up shots of birds perched on man made objects. I find the top photo more appealing to my tastes because it doesn’t contain the speed limit sign.\u00a0\u00a0I love seeing the out of focus Great Salt Lake, Egg Island, and distant mountains in the image above yet I sure wish that the speed limit sign had been an old tree stump or other natural object.<\/p>\n

Another time perhaps.<\/p>\n

(By the way, the speed limit sign is<\/strong><\/em> actually that crooked!)<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

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

Last Friday I came upon this Swainson’s Hawk; not just once but twice, perched on signs very close to the road. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[511,1022,322,206,26],"tags":[4004,58,215,4200,4142,4005,4033,4169,4124,4104,4046,4019,4063,4681,10061,4034,3996],"class_list":["post-2427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-davis-county-utah","category-portraits","category-swainson-hawks","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-antelope-island-sp","tag-bird-id","tag-buteo-swainsoni","tag-close-up","tag-great-salt-lake","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-mobile-blind","tag-perched","tag-portrait","tag-preening-2","tag-raptor","tag-sign","tag-speed-limit-sign","tag-swainsons-hawk","tag-water"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t