{"id":42728,"date":"2016-10-19T06:18:43","date_gmt":"2016-10-19T12:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=42728"},"modified":"2026-01-16T12:51:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T18:51:23","slug":"west-desert-red-tailed-hawk-under-gray-blustery-skies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/10\/19\/west-desert-red-tailed-hawk-under-gray-blustery-skies\/","title":{"rendered":"West Desert Red-tailed Hawk Under Gray, Blustery Skies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WestWest Desert Red-tailed Hawk adult – Nikon D500, f6.3, 1\/1000, ISO 1250, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday morning was supposed to be partly sunny to mostly sunny where I live in Utah and once again the forecasters were wrong because instead what I actually saw were heavy gray clouds, virga, spitting rain, and snow falling in the high country in both Salt Lake and Tooele counties.<\/p>\n

But I hadn’t been out shooting in 5 days and I desperately needed to raise my lens and camera at some thing.\u00a0 I was having withdrawals.<\/p>\n

I kept three images from yesterday, just three.<\/p>\n

Two of them are horrible, low quality images of a very pale Northern Goshawk juvenile that I spotted and pointed out up in a canyon from a long distance away that I kept purely for documentation purposes.<\/p>\n

I don’t see goshawks very often and that is probably because they are birds of dense deciduous and coniferous forests and I photograph out in the open more often than not. I think I might need to change that.<\/p>\n

The only other image I kept from yesterday was of a Red-Tailed Hawk<\/span><\/a>. I didn’t think I’d like this photo of a perched Red-tailed Hawk under gray, blustery skies but I do.<\/p>\n

I like the gray skies behind this hawk, the direct eye contact, and the contrast of the cool hues in the sky against the warmer tones of the hawk’s plumage, and the tree it is perched on.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good even when the clouds roll in. Perhaps the weather will be better today.<\/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":"

I didn’t think I’d like this photo of a perched Red-tailed Hawk under gray, blustery skies but I do<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":167031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,449,1316,358,26,1314],"tags":[4004,970,2663,4170,4098,4620,5484,4033,4169,2386,156,4104,153,5446,4209],"class_list":["post-42728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-red-tailed-hawks","category-stansbury-mountains-utah","category-tooele-county","category-utah","category-west-desert-utah","tag-adult","tag-autumn","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-buteo-jamaicensis","tag-desert","tag-fall","tag-gray-skies","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-utah","tag-low-light-2","tag-perched","tag-raptors","tag-red-tailed-hawks","tag-red-tailed-hawk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/red-tailed-hawk-adult-low-light-mia-mcpherson-8045.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-b7a","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":106793,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/10\/04\/red-tailed-hawk-waiting-for-the-light\/","url_meta":{"origin":42728,"position":0},"title":"Red-tailed Hawk Waiting For The Light","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 4, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"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.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Red-tailed Hawk waiting for the morning light, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-before-dawns-light-mia-mcpherson-8034.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-before-dawns-light-mia-mcpherson-8034.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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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 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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 "Birds"","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, 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