{"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_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_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":[27,1022,697,1087,26],"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":[],"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