{"id":46738,"date":"2017-05-13T05:08:16","date_gmt":"2017-05-13T11:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=46738"},"modified":"2025-10-03T15:53:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T20:53:47","slug":"two-months-of-photographing-a-cooperative-northern-harrier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/05\/13\/two-months-of-photographing-a-cooperative-northern-harrier\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Months of Photographing a Cooperative Northern Harrier"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FirstFirst Spring Northern Harrier male perched – Nikon D810, f8, 1\/640, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

There was a very cooperative first spring male Northern Harrier in a location where I photographed Short-eared Owls last year in northern Utah and for two months I could reliably see and photograph it frequently. I started photographing it on April 6, 2016, which is when this photo was taken from the shoulder of a road in Box Elder County<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"FirstFirst Spring male Northern Harrier in golden morning light – Nikon D810, f8, 1\/250, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Some times the young harrier would be on the wrong side of the road to have good light on it but most often it was on the west side of the road where I would often have beautiful, warm morning light fall on the bird.<\/p>\n

This Northern Harrier seemed to have its favorite perches in an area of only a couple of hundred yards along the road. This photo was taken at at 7:02 a.m. on May 3, 2016…<\/p>\n

\"PreeningPreening First Spring male Northern Harrier – Nikon D810, f6.3, 1\/800, ISO 400, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

And on May 12, 2016 at\u00a0at 7:02 a.m. I found the harrier on the exact same perch. I photographed the harrier from slightly different angles on these two occasions.<\/p>\n

\"CloseClose up of a first Spring male Northern Harrier – Nikon D810, f13, 1\/500, ISO 250, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

The sub adult harrier was not skittish and with a slow approach there were times I could get frame filling images of it from the road without it showing any signs of distress. At times it would glance in my direction and then preen its feathers.\u00a0 This photo was taken May 26, 2016.<\/p>\n

\"FirstFirst Spring male Northern Harrier staring at me – Nikon D810, f13, 1\/250, ISO 250, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

And there were times I took off my teleconverter so I could fit the entire bird in the frame as I composed my images. This photo was also taken on May 26, 2016 just a few minutes after the image above.<\/p>\n

In this photo I can see that the primaries; also known as flight feathers, look more grayish than the secondaries next to them which is one of the ID features I used to determine that this first spring harrier is a male.<\/p>\n

\"NorthernNorthern Harrier at the end of May 2016 – Nikon D810, f14, 1\/400, ISO 320, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

What does “first spring” mean? Well it means this harrier hatched and fledged in 2015 and that it was seeing its first spring in 2016. This photo was taken on May 30, 2016.<\/p>\n

\"MaleMale Northern Harrier in his First Spring – Nikon D810, f14, 1\/400, ISO 200, -1.0 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

After the 30th of May last year my sightings of this young male Northern Harrier became less frequent but I was spending more time searching for Short-eared Owl chicks at that point and less looking for him. I enjoyed the time I spent photographing this hawk in April and May of last year and loved having him in my viewfinder.<\/p>\n

This spring I have missed seeing and photographing this cooperative Northern Harrier but often think of him when I go past these fence posts when I am on that section of the road.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

All of these images were taken from within a vehicle that was being used as a mobile blind. The road has plenty of traffic including large trucks with horse and cattle trailers and semis hauling big loads. The harrier was used to vehicles so using a mobile blind was the best choice for the bird’s comfort.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

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

There was a very cooperative first spring male Northern Harrier in a location where I photographed Short-eared Owls last year in northern Utah and for two months I could reliably see and photograph it frequently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":159154,"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":[27,1148,348,26],"tags":[2663,765,8303,898,5047,9108,2783,3164,7398,4169,2386,4067,4062,767,4124,2312,4006,4104,8300,1053,4394,9109,2318,153,9110,165,5169,8917,4193],"class_list":["post-46738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-northern-harriers","category-utah","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-circus-hudsonius","tag-cooperative","tag-fence-post","tag-first-spring","tag-frame-filling","tag-harrier","tag-harriers","tag-hatched","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-utah","tag-immature","tag-male","tag-marsh-hawk","tag-mobile-blind","tag-molt","tag-northern-harrier","tag-perched","tag-photographing","tag-plumage","tag-post","tag-preen","tag-primaries","tag-raptors","tag-secondaries","tag-spring","tag-tame","tag-wooden-post","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-box-elder-county-mia-mcpherson-7409.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-c9Q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":37960,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/04\/07\/first-spring-northern-harrier-in-box-elder-county\/","url_meta":{"origin":46738,"position":0},"title":"First Spring Northern Harrier in Box Elder County","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I was able to take quite a few images of a very cooperative first spring Northern Harrier that was perched on an old post next to the road in Box Elder County.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"First spring Northern Harrier rousing on a fence post in Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/northern-harrier-immature-mia-mcpherson-3821.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/northern-harrier-immature-mia-mcpherson-3821.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/northern-harrier-immature-mia-mcpherson-3821.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/northern-harrier-immature-mia-mcpherson-3821.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":39767,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/05\/28\/an-intriguing-and-very-tame-northern-harrier\/","url_meta":{"origin":46738,"position":1},"title":"An Intriguing and Very Tame Northern Harrier","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"While I have been photographing Short-eared Owls in northern Utah I have come across this intriguing and very tame Northern Harrier over and over in the same location.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Goofy Northern Harrier, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-goofy-mia-mcpherson-4889.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-goofy-mia-mcpherson-4889.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-goofy-mia-mcpherson-4889.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-goofy-mia-mcpherson-4889.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":119554,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/01\/07\/northern-harrier-my-first-raptor-of-2024\/","url_meta":{"origin":46738,"position":2},"title":"Northern Harrier – My First Raptor of 2024","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 7, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The first raptor I photographed in 2024 was this young male Northern Harrier that I found near the refuge auto tour loop at Bear River MBR on New Year's Day.","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":"Young male Northern Harrier on the wing, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-harrier-immature-male-mia-mcpherson-1071.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-harrier-immature-male-mia-mcpherson-1071.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-harrier-immature-male-mia-mcpherson-1071.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-harrier-immature-male-mia-mcpherson-1071.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":55153,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/11\/28\/portrait-of-a-first-spring-male-northern-harrier-in-northern-utah\/","url_meta":{"origin":46738,"position":3},"title":"Portrait Of A First Spring Male Northern Harrier In Northern Utah","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"It isn't often that I am able to be close enough to a Northern Harrier to take a portrait of one, in fact I can only think of one time that I've been that fortunate and that was in May of 2016.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Portrait of a First Spring male Northern Harrier, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-1st-spring-male-mia-mcpherson-4864.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-1st-spring-male-mia-mcpherson-4864.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-1st-spring-male-mia-mcpherson-4864.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-1st-spring-male-mia-mcpherson-4864.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":118614,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/11\/29\/frosty-northern-harrier-in-utah\/","url_meta":{"origin":46738,"position":4},"title":"Frosty Northern Harrier In Utah","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 29, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"This photo of a frosty Northern Harrier was taken almost five years ago. Although the harrier is small in the frame, I still find the image visually appealing.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Frosty Northern Harrier on the ground, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/northern-harrier-immature-male-on-ground-mia-mcpherson-2196.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/northern-harrier-immature-male-on-ground-mia-mcpherson-2196.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/northern-harrier-immature-male-on-ground-mia-mcpherson-2196.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/northern-harrier-immature-male-on-ground-mia-mcpherson-2196.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":108182,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/11\/22\/male-northern-harrier-photo\/","url_meta":{"origin":46738,"position":5},"title":"Male Northern Harrier Photo","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 22, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I'd like this photo of a male Northern Harrier more if there weren't camping trailers from a duck hunting club near the auto loop of Bear River MBR behind him.","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 Northern Harrier in flight dorsal view, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/northern-harrier-male-flight-mia-mcpherson-4292.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/northern-harrier-male-flight-mia-mcpherson-4292.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/northern-harrier-male-flight-mia-mcpherson-4292.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/northern-harrier-male-flight-mia-mcpherson-4292.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\/46738","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=46738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}