{"id":42880,"date":"2016-10-27T05:31:05","date_gmt":"2016-10-27T11:31:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=42880"},"modified":"2025-09-30T18:29:41","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T23:29:41","slug":"my-first-of-the-season-rough-legged-hawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/10\/27\/my-first-of-the-season-rough-legged-hawks\/","title":{"rendered":"My First of the Season Rough-legged Hawks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rough-leggedRough-legged Hawk on Parking Area sign – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 500, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

I went to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/span><\/a> yesterday hoping to see and photograph my first of the season Tundra Swans and Rough-legged Hawks, I dipped on the swans but found at least 5 of the hawks. Of the Rough-legged Hawks only one of them was anywhere near close enough to photograph and all of the places it decided to perch on were signs. The first sign I saw it perched on was the “Parking Area” sign on the north side of the auto tour route. I hope the hawk parks in this area often this winter.<\/p>\n

Last year there was a Rough-legged Hawk that was consistently found in this same area<\/span><\/a> of the refuge and yesterday I spent time wondering if this hawk was that same hawk.<\/p>\n

\"Rough-leggedRough-legged Hawk on a sign at Bear River MBR – Nikon D500, f14, 1\/160, ISO 500, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

The Rough-legged Hawk took flight across the water and landed on another sign about only possessing 10 shells on that specific dike. This image is full frame and I could only get the hawk and the characters “ossess 10” in it when I turned my D500 vertical.<\/p>\n

While I usually prefer natural perched to man made perches I am becoming more accepting of man made perches in my images as I grow as a bird photographer.<\/p>\n

I am excited about seeing the Rough-legged Hawks on the refuge again and hopefully the Tundra Swans aren’t too far behind.<\/p>\n

Life is 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":"

I went to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge yesterday hoping to see and photograph my first of the season Tundra Swans and Rough-legged Hawks, I dipped on the swans but found at least 5 of the hawks. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":158691,"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":[124,27,1148,1087,26],"tags":[4004,970,2663,4275,2497,4620,4033,4169,2386,2670,4104,153,1648,4681,5496],"class_list":["post-42880","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-rough-legged-hawks","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-autumn","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-buteo-lagopus","tag-buteos","tag-fall","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-utah","tag-light-morph","tag-perched","tag-raptors","tag-rough-legged-hawk","tag-sign","tag-signs"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rough-legged-hawk-parking-sign-mia-mcpherson-9686.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-b9C","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":54643,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/10\/17\/rough-legged-hawks-have-returned-expect-big-changes-at-bear-river-mbr\/","url_meta":{"origin":42880,"position":0},"title":"Rough-legged Hawks Have Returned & Expect Big Changes At Bear River MBR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 17, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"My big excitement yesterday morning was seeing my first, second and third of the year Rough-legged Hawks at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and the next thing was seeing all the changes that have happened at the refuge since my last visit.","rel":"","context":"In "American Pipits"","block_context":{"text":"American Pipits","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/mimids\/american-pipits\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Second of Year Rough-legged Hawk, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, 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currently the time of the year when I start looking for Rough-legged Hawks in northern Utah, the temps have dipped below freezing, there has been frost on the ground and now we've had our first snow.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Rough-legged Hawk perched on a parking sign, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-parking-sign-mia-mcpherson-9707.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-parking-sign-mia-mcpherson-9707.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I had five minutes of bird bliss yesterday morning at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge when I was able to take immature light morph Rough-legged Hawk portraits.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature light morph Rough-legged Hawk portrait, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/rough-legged-hawk-immature-mia-mcpherson-7224.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/rough-legged-hawk-immature-mia-mcpherson-7224.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/rough-legged-hawk-immature-mia-mcpherson-7224.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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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, 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=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42880","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=42880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}