{"id":50914,"date":"2018-02-08T05:32:27","date_gmt":"2018-02-08T12:32:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=50914"},"modified":"2025-10-01T10:37:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T15:37:20","slug":"rough-legged-hawk-lift-off-at-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/02\/08\/rough-legged-hawk-lift-off-at-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/","title":{"rendered":"Rough-legged Hawk Lift Off At Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rough-leggedRough-legged Hawk lift off – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2500, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

I spent the first part of my morning yesterday at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/span><\/a> in Box Elder County. I saw lots of Tundra Swans and photographed some of them while taking off to head to their feeding grounds.<\/p>\n

I also saw quite a few Great Blue Herons, Northern Harriers, American Coots, Canada Geese, ducks, plus a few Bald Eagles and several Rough-legged Hawks.<\/p>\n

With the sun shining and only a few clouds overhead it felt more like late April than early February, we have had an oddly warm winter here in northern Utah.<\/p>\n

With the snow pack in the mountains far below normal spring runoff this year will likely only be a trickle instead of the flooding we had last spring.<\/p>\n

When I left the auto tour route and began to head towards I-15 to go home I saw a Rough-legged Hawk lift off from a sign and dive towards the ground after prey.<\/p>\n

I quickly turned my Jeep around to get a better light angle and watched as the adult Rough-legged Hawk consumed it.<\/p>\n

But wouldn’t you know that that a cloud blocked the best sunlight at that time? Things like that happen quite often for bird photographers, the light had been great up until that time.<\/p>\n

So I photographed the Rough-legged Hawk eating the prey but I wasn’t happy with the light or that the hawk was turned in such a way that I didn’t get much light in its eyes while it tore apart the vole bit by bit until it swallowed the rest of it whole.<\/p>\n

After the hawk finished eating the vole I could tell that it was getting ready to lift off from the flats and as it turned I started to fire off a burst of shots and was able to capture this photo.<\/p>\n

The Rough-legged Hawk’s wings were fully extended above its body while its feet were still firmly planted on the ground and with one downward swoop of its long wings it was airborne right after this was photo was created.<\/p>\n

I still didn’t care for the lighting conditions when this photo was taken but I enjoyed seeing this dynamic pose and the action that followed.<\/p>\n

With our spring-like temperatures the Rough-legged Hawks and other feathered visitors that overwinter here in Northern Utah might not stick around much longer so I hope to take as many photos of them as I can before they head north.<\/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":"

The Rough-legged Hawk’s wings were fully extended above its body while its feet were still firmly planted on the ground and with one downward swoop of its long wings it was airborne right after this was photo was created. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":158782,"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_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[124,27,1148,1087,26],"tags":[4004,5284,2663,4275,2497,5672,4033,4169,4282,2670,4062,6973,153,1648,373],"class_list":["post-50914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-rough-legged-hawks","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-alkali-flats","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-buteo-lagopus","tag-buteos","tag-flats","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-lift-off","tag-light-morph","tag-male","tag-playa","tag-raptors","tag-rough-legged-hawk","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-lift-off-mia-mcpherson-0888.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-dfc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":99465,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/01\/30\/adult-male-rough-legged-hawk-in-early-morning-light\/","url_meta":{"origin":50914,"position":0},"title":"Adult Male Rough-legged Hawk In Early Morning Light","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 30, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Of all the photos I took yesterday at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge the one I liked the most is of this Rough-legged Hawk in early morning light.","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 Rough-legged Hawk in early morning light, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, 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To The Bear River","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"One good bird can \"make\" a trip and yesterday a male Rough-legged Hawk made my trip to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge worthwhile.","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 perched in a frosty marsh, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rough-legged-hawk-perched-mia-mcpherson-8144.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-perched-mia-mcpherson-8144.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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I spotted my first of season Rough-legged Hawks on the wing last Friday.","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 light morph Rough-legged Hawk on a February morning, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-adult-male-info-sign-mia-mcpherson-9795.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-adult-male-info-sign-mia-mcpherson-9795.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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