{"id":49925,"date":"2017-12-16T05:32:09","date_gmt":"2017-12-16T12:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=49925"},"modified":"2025-10-01T09:58:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T14:58:32","slug":"immature-rough-legged-hawk-lift-off-landing-lunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/12\/16\/immature-rough-legged-hawk-lift-off-landing-lunch\/","title":{"rendered":"Immature Rough-legged Hawk – Lift Off, Landing & Lunch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday morning I was able to photograph an immature Rough-legged Hawk lifting off, landing and lunching at Farmington Bay WMA<\/span><\/a> in northern Utah.<\/p>\n

\"ImmatureImmature Rough-legged Hawk lifting off from a nest box<\/span><\/p>\n

When I first started to photograph the young hawk I had my teleconverter on but when it looked like it might take flight I removed the teleconverter so that I would reduce the chances of clipping the bird’s wings when it did lift of from the kestrel nest box.<\/p>\n

I’m glad I did remove the teleconverter because I have a very nice series of this lift off.<\/p>\n

I love how in this frame the Rough-legged Hawk’s talons are still just barely touching the nest box as well as the beautiful view of the underside of the hawk’s wings.<\/p>\n

\"ImmatureImmature Rough-legged Hawk’s pin point landing on nest box<\/span><\/p>\n

I have a lovely series of images after the lift off while this immature hawk was in flight that I will try to post later but after a thirteen image post yesterday I didn’t want to bog down too many devices again today.<\/p>\n

I thought since I had a wonderful lift off photo where the bird’s talons were just about to leave the nest box that it might be neat to have a photo of the immature Rough-legged Hawk making a pin point landing on the same nest box where two talons were touching the nest box and a great landing pose with the other talons about to grasp the top of the nest box.<\/p>\n

\"ImmatureImmature Rough-legged Hawk in flight with prey<\/span><\/p>\n

I attached my teleconverter to take more images of the bird as it perched on top of the nest box scanning the fields in search of prey.<\/p>\n

When it lifted again off I did clip the wings in many of the photos but since it wasn’t facing me I didn’t feel too bad about my choice.<\/p>\n

The Rough-legged Hawk found prey on this flight and turned towards the nest box with the vole firmly grasped in its talons.<\/p>\n

I didn’t have time to remove my teleconverter so I just hoped for the best as the bird flew directly towards the nest box again.<\/p>\n

I took several photos of it flying towards the nest box then quickly pre-focused on the nest box in anticipation of the hawk landing there to eat the prey it had captured.<\/p>\n

\"ImmatureImmature Rough-legged Hawk on nest box with lunch<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m glad I left the teleconverter on and pre-focused on the nest box because I have another nice series of this immature Rough-legged Hawk landing with its prey and I didn’t clip a single wing tip at that.<\/p>\n

I believe the vole may have been alive at this point in time because at full resolution I can see a catch light in its eye even though hawk has a death grip on it.<\/p>\n

It was great to observe this immature Rough-legged Hawk through my viewfinder yesterday and to photograph it while it went about it’s daily life. I’m glad I spotted the hawk.<\/p>\n

I really, really love what do.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

Yesterday morning I was able to photograph an immature Rough-legged Hawk lifting off, landing and lunching at Farmington Bay WMA in northern Utah. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":158757,"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":[27,1022,697,1087,26],"tags":[2663,4275,2497,4052,4122,4033,4169,4067,4123,4282,2670,6286,4094,2279,4106,153,1648,1999,4290,4095],"class_list":["post-49925","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-buteos","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-immature","tag-landing","tag-lift-off","tag-light-morph","tag-lunch","tag-marsh","tag-nest-box","tag-prey","tag-raptors","tag-rough-legged-hawk","tag-talons","tag-vole","tag-wetlands"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-immature-lunch-mia-mcpherson-5483.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-cZf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":108765,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/12\/15\/immature-rough-legged-hawk-staring-prey-and-feaking\/","url_meta":{"origin":49925,"position":0},"title":"Immature Rough-legged Hawk, Staring Prey And Feaking","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 15, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"This morning I am sharing photos of an immature Rough-legged Hawk, its staring prey, of the bird feaking and a bonus image that shows the tongue of the hawk.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature Rough-legged Hawk looking at a staring vole, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/rough-legged-hawk-immature-prey-mia-mcpherson-5480.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/rough-legged-hawk-immature-prey-mia-mcpherson-5480.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/rough-legged-hawk-immature-prey-mia-mcpherson-5480.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/rough-legged-hawk-immature-prey-mia-mcpherson-5480.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":50053,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/12\/23\/immature-light-morph-rough-legged-hawk-in-flight-landing\/","url_meta":{"origin":49925,"position":1},"title":"Immature Light Morph Rough-legged Hawk in Flight & Landing","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Eight days ago I spent time photographing an immature, light morph Rough-legged Hawk at Farmington Bay WMA in northern Utah.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature Rough-legged Hawk in flight over a field, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-immature-flight-mia-mcpherson-5313.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-flight-mia-mcpherson-5313.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-immature-flight-mia-mcpherson-5313.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-flight-mia-mcpherson-5313.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":55136,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/11\/27\/peek-a-boo-rough-legged-hawk-at-farmington-bay-wma\/","url_meta":{"origin":49925,"position":2},"title":"Peek-a-boo Rough-legged Hawk At Farmington Bay WMA","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Why did it make me laugh and smile? Because it looks like the Rough-legged Hawk might have been playing peek-a-boo as it looked towards me through its wingtips.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Peek-a-boo Rough-legged Hawk, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-nest-box-mia-mcpherson-5320.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-nest-box-mia-mcpherson-5320.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-nest-box-mia-mcpherson-5320.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-nest-box-mia-mcpherson-5320.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":107272,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/10\/15\/immature-red-tailed-hawk-with-mountains-in-the-background\/","url_meta":{"origin":49925,"position":3},"title":"Immature Red-tailed Hawk With Mountains In The Background","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 15, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"My best bird photos from yesterday morning at Farmington Bay WMA were of an immature Red-tailed Hawk with the shadowed Wasatch Mountain slopes in the background.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature Red-tailed Hawk on a nest box in early morning light, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-nestbox-mia-mcpherson-0726.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-nestbox-mia-mcpherson-0726.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-nestbox-mia-mcpherson-0726.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-nestbox-mia-mcpherson-0726.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":74760,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/10\/19\/on-the-lookout-for-rough-legged-hawks\/","url_meta":{"origin":49925,"position":4},"title":"On The Lookout For Rough-Legged Hawks","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 19, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm hoping that this week I'll be able to spot my first of the season Rough-legged Hawks and that I'll be able to get photos of them too. 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":[]},{"id":100107,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/02\/20\/immature-rough-legged-hawk-perched-on-a-tumbleweed\/","url_meta":{"origin":49925,"position":5},"title":"Immature Rough-legged Hawk Perched On A Tumbleweed","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I was delighted to spot, point out, and photograph this immature light morph Rough-legged Hawk that was perched on a tumbleweed at Bear River MBR yesterday morning.","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":"Immature light morph Rough-legged Hawk perched on a tumbleweed, 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-tumbleweed-mia-mcpherson-4666.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-tumbleweed-mia-mcpherson-4666.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/rough-legged-hawk-immature-tumbleweed-mia-mcpherson-4666.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/rough-legged-hawk-immature-tumbleweed-mia-mcpherson-4666.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\/49925","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=49925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}