{"id":44360,"date":"2017-01-13T06:27:12","date_gmt":"2017-01-13T13:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=44360"},"modified":"2026-01-16T13:12:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T19:12:55","slug":"photographing-a-red-tailed-hawk-at-farmington-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/01\/13\/photographing-a-red-tailed-hawk-at-farmington-bay\/","title":{"rendered":"Photographing a Red-tailed Hawk at Farmington Bay"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost three years ago today I spent time photographing a Red-tailed Hawk at Farmington Bay that was hunting in a snowy field while using a nest box as a perch to watch for prey.<\/p>\n

\"Red-tailedRed-tailed Hawk on a nest box at Farmington Bay – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

The Red-tailed Hawk wasn’t quite fully grown, even though it had the red tail of an adult it still had the light colored eyes of a young bird instead of the dark eyes of an adult. I’d call it a sub-adult.<\/p>\n

\"Red-tailedRed-tailed Hawk on a snowy field – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

The Red-tailed Hawk perched on top of the nest box over the snowy field and when it located prey it would lift off and fly towards the prey. While I photographed this hawk I see it successfully catch prey once.<\/p>\n

The heavy cover of snow on the ground may have been an obstacle, it is for many birds of prey at this time of the year.<\/p>\n

\"Red-tailedRed-tailed Hawk drying its feathers – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/800, ISO 500, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

One time when the hawk returned to its perch on the nest box it shook and then spread its tail out to dry and by doing so it gave me a great view of the dark bands of its red tail.<\/p>\n

The out of focus snow-covered Wasatch Mountain Range behind the hawk made for a nice background.<\/p>\n

\"Red-tailedRed-tailed Hawk yawning on a nest box – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Then the Red-tailed Hawk<\/span><\/a> yawned a couple of times while basking in the bright morning sun before it flew north and I left the hawk to head home. Some times I wonder if this same hawk shows up at Farmington Bay during the winter, who knows, maybe it does.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/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":"

Almost three years ago today I spent time photographing a Red-tailed Hawk at Farmington Bay that was hunting in a snowy field while using a nest box as a perch to watch for prey. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142120,"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":[27,1022,697,449,26],"tags":[2663,4170,5596,4169,2386,2279,4104,8301,8300,153,5130,4209,4050,2239,1164,373,340],"class_list":["post-44360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-red-tailed-hawks","category-utah","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-buteo-jamaicensis","tag-drying","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-utah","tag-nest-box","tag-perched","tag-photograph","tag-photographing","tag-raptors","tag-red-tailed","tag-red-tailed-hawk","tag-snow","tag-sub-adult","tag-wasatch-mountain-range","tag-winter","tag-yawning"],"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