{"id":46428,"date":"2017-04-23T06:09:52","date_gmt":"2017-04-23T12:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=46428"},"modified":"2021-04-27T04:31:49","modified_gmt":"2021-04-27T10:31:49","slug":"photographing-swainsons-hawks-in-northern-utah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/04\/23\/photographing-swainsons-hawks-in-northern-utah\/","title":{"rendered":"Photographing Swainson’s Hawks in Northern Utah"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday morning in northern Utah I saw about a dozen Swainson’s Hawks in about 2.25 miles, some were perched, some were in flight and all of them were wonderful to photograph. I found it difficult to keep up with how many there were so I just stopped counting.\u00a0 It is a pretty straight stretch of road so I could easily spot them plus it felt like a “Swainson’s Hawk Gallery” with the hawks just waiting in line to be photographed.<\/p>\n

\"MaleMale light morph Swainson’s Hawk in morning light – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 320, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

It was chilly yesterday morning and some of the hawks seemed to be warming up in the sun from the cold night. This male was pretty sticky.<\/p>\n

\"MorningMorning light on a light morph Swainson’s Hawk – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 320, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

This Swainson’s was beautiful in the morning light with sagebrush and grasses in the background along with the distant mountains.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult Swainson’s Hawk close up in side light – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/400, ISO 250, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

By driving slow past the Swainson’s Hawks there were times I could take close up photos of them with my long lens without the hawks showing any signs of being alarmed. When other vehicles went past they barely even flinched. I wonder if the other drivers even saw these magnificent birds or if they were in such a hurry to get where they were going they just ignored the hawks.<\/p>\n

\"DarkDark morph Swainson’s Hawk in early morning light – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1640, ISO 250, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of the Swainson’s Hawks seemed like all they wanted to do was absorb the warmth of the rising sun before getting started on their day. I’m kind of like that but I substitute coffee for the sun to get my day off to the right start.<\/p>\n

\"CloseClose up of dark morph Swainson’s Hawk in golden light – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/640, ISO 250, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

This dark morph Swainson’s Hawk looked rufous in the golden light when passing it, this is the same bird as the photo directly above this one but the angle of light had changed while moving down the road. I’m seeing quite a few dark morph Swainson’s this year in northern Utah and that delights me.<\/p>\n

\"Sub-adultSub-adult Swainson’s Hawk perched on an old fence post – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 320, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

I believe this is a sub-adult intermediate morph Swainson’s Hawk and it was very cooperative. I took way too many images of it from several different spots from the shoulder of the road.<\/p>\n

\"MaleMale Swainson’s Hawk casting a pellet – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 320, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

And I couldn’t resist sharing a photo of this male Swainson’s casting a pellet of fur and bones. I have a great series of the hawk expelling this pellet and a second one that can be seen in the hawk’s beak that followed it.<\/p>\n

It is terrific to have the Swainson’s Hawks back in Utah, to see them perched on fence posts, trees and rocks, to see them soaring in the sky and to be able to photograph them once again. I had a great time with them yesterday.<\/p>\n

Life is so<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

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

Yesterday morning in northern Utah I saw about a dozen Swainson’s Hawks in about 2.25 miles, some were perched, some were in flight and all of them were wonderful to photograph.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46425,"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":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1148,206,26],"tags":[4004,2663,4200,2497,5826,4142,4530,4942,898,4033,4169,2386,2670,5827,4062,392,4104,8301,8300,2239,4034,8917],"class_list":["post-46428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-swainson-hawks","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-buteo-swainsoni","tag-buteos","tag-casting","tag-close-up","tag-dark-morph","tag-expelling","tag-fence-post","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-utah","tag-light-morph","tag-locust-hawks","tag-male","tag-pellet","tag-perched","tag-photograph","tag-photographing","tag-sub-adult","tag-swainsons-hawk","tag-wooden-post"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/swainsons-hawk-portrait-dark-morph-mia-mcpherson-4258.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-c4Q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":105569,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/08\/29\/dark-morph-swainsons-hawk-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":46428,"position":0},"title":"Dark Morph Swainson’s Hawk Photos","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 29, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Early yesterday morning on my way to the auto tour route at Bear River MBR I was delighted to see and photograph not just one dark morph Swainson's Hawk but two.","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":"Adult dark morph Swainson's Hawk in lift off pose, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, 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2017","format":false,"excerpt":"There are so many Swainson's Hawks in northern Utah right now, I see them perched, on their nests, hovering over fields and soaring on the thermals after the sun warms up the air.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Roadside Swainson's Hawk","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/swainsons-hawk-adult-mia-mcpherson-4067.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/swainsons-hawk-adult-mia-mcpherson-4067.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/swainsons-hawk-adult-mia-mcpherson-4067.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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2018","format":false,"excerpt":"All of the Swainson's I photographed the first day of May last year were adults except for what I believe was a sub-adult dark morph Swainson's Hawk and I thought that hawk was a real beauty.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Rousing sub-adult dark morph Swainson's Hawk, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/swainsons-hawk-sub-adult-dark-morph-mia-mcpherson-7258.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/swainsons-hawk-sub-adult-dark-morph-mia-mcpherson-7258.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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