{"id":44561,"date":"2017-01-23T06:17:24","date_gmt":"2017-01-23T13:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=44561"},"modified":"2025-09-30T19:02:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T00:02:20","slug":"rough-legged-hawk-on-a-designated-parking-sign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/01\/23\/rough-legged-hawk-on-a-designated-parking-sign\/","title":{"rendered":"Rough-legged Hawk on a Designated Parking Sign"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rough-leggedRough-legged Hawk on a parking sign – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/640, +1.0 EV, Nikkor 200-4000mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Four years ago today there were whiteout conditions at Farmington Bay WMA where the horizon seemed to disappear due to thick ground-level fog, low hanging clouds and a deep blanket of snow on the ground.<\/p>\n

It was a challenging morning for me to photograph in but I know it was much harder for the birds that had to go through the bitter cold temperatures of the winter night because most of the birds I saw early in the morning were covered in hoar frost.<\/p>\n

Many of the birds here in the Salt Lake Valley find a place to roost in the evening and overnight frost begins to accumulate on their feathers like it did on this Rough-legged Hawk on a parking sign.<\/p>\n

Rough-legged Hawks<\/span><\/a> breed in the Arctic tundra and taiga of Canada and Alaska and are used to frigid temperatures and their feathered tarsi, or legs, help them to withstand the cold.<\/p>\n

Still, when I see birds covered in frost I feel bad that they have to survive the harsh winters here without the creature comforts that I have.<\/p>\n

The weather conditions here this morning look as bad, if not worse, than they were four years ago. I’ll more than likely be staying home and keeping warm.<\/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":"

Many of the birds here in the Salt Lake Valley find a place to roost in the evening and overnight frost begins to accumulate on their feathers like it did on this Rough-legged Hawk on a parking sign. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":158710,"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":[27,1022,697,1087,26],"tags":[2663,4275,2414,2413,4175,3984,3983,368,4169,2386,4201,4067,2670,5625,4104,153,1648,4681,5627,4813,5626,373,4193],"class_list":["post-44561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-rough-legged-hawks","category-utah","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-buteo-lagopus","tag-feathered-legs","tag-feathered-tarsi","tag-fog","tag-foggy","tag-frost","tag-frosty","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-utah","tag-hoar-frost","tag-immature","tag-light-morph","tag-parking-sign","tag-perched","tag-raptors","tag-rough-legged-hawk","tag-sign","tag-tarsus","tag-whiteout","tag-whiteout-conditions","tag-winter","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rough-legged-hawk-snow-fog-mia-mcpherson-4026.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-bAJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":99683,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/02\/05\/light-morph-male-rough-legged-hawk-winter-site-fidelity\/","url_meta":{"origin":44561,"position":0},"title":"Light Morph Male Rough-legged Hawk Winter Site Fidelity","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 5, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I have been photographing a light morph male Rough-legged Hawk on or near a One Way sign at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge frequently this winter.","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":"Rough-legged Hawk adult male with dark clouds in the background, 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-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-5308.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-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-5308.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/rough-legged-hawk-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-5308.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/rough-legged-hawk-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-5308.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":119249,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/12\/19\/rough-legged-hawk-in-dense-fog\/","url_meta":{"origin":44561,"position":1},"title":"Rough-legged Hawk In Dense Fog","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 19, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Some bird photographers might not share a photo like this Rough-legged Hawk in dense fog that I took two years ago today at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.","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":"Rough-legged Hawk in dense fog at Bear River MBR, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/rough-legged-hawk-dense-fog-mia-mcpherson-9937.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/rough-legged-hawk-dense-fog-mia-mcpherson-9937.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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subarctic and Arctic regions.","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 over a marshy area of the Great Salt Lake, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rough-legged-hawk-flight-mia-mcpherson-8891.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rough-legged-hawk-flight-mia-mcpherson-8891.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rough-legged-hawk-flight-mia-mcpherson-8891.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Fingers are crossed!","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":"Immature Rough-legged Hawk perched on a snow-covered cliff, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-immature-snow-mia-mcpherson-3435.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-immature-snow-mia-mcpherson-3435.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-immature-snow-mia-mcpherson-3435.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-immature-snow-mia-mcpherson-3435.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\/44561","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=44561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}