{"id":55153,"date":"2018-11-28T06:29:51","date_gmt":"2018-11-28T13:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=55153"},"modified":"2025-10-03T16:54:58","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T21:54:58","slug":"portrait-of-a-first-spring-male-northern-harrier-in-northern-utah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/11\/28\/portrait-of-a-first-spring-male-northern-harrier-in-northern-utah\/","title":{"rendered":"Portrait Of A First Spring Male Northern Harrier In Northern Utah"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PortraitPortrait of a first Spring male Northern Harrier – Nikon D810, f13, 1\/400, ISO 250, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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. There is a story behind this photo and this particular bird that spans an almost two month period of time.<\/p>\n

In early April of 2016 I photographed a very cooperative first spring male Northern Harrier, young raptors can be approachable but this young harrier almost seemed oblivious to people in vehicles stopped or passing by.<\/p>\n

This harrier seemed to prefer one certain area of a fence line Box Elder County<\/span><\/a> and from there it scanned the fields on both sides of the road for prey.<\/p>\n

Throughout April and May that year I was lucky enough to see this young Northern Harrier resting, preening, throwing pellets, flying, and observing him as he strengthened his hunting skills.<\/p>\n

I was never with him very long because I didn’t want to stress him or have him get used to humans in close proximity but I always appreciated seeing him when he was around on my journeys up north.<\/p>\n

At the end of May the young male Northern Harrier flew in and landed on a fence post so close that I had the opportunity to take a few portraits of it before he flew off and I was thrilled. He never looked up at me because he was busy scanning the ground directly below the fence post so I suspect that he had seen movement of some kind of prey there and that is why he flew in and landed so close. Before I knew it he had lifted off and flown to another nearby fence post.<\/p>\n

I’d never processed this photo before because at the time I took it I thought I would have preferred some eye contact with the harrier but the more I think about it the more I like this image because it shows a wild bird so relaxed that is just kept on looking for prey and paid no attention to me.<\/p>\n

The last time I photographed this particular harrier was the 30th of May that year and I have often wondered when I pass that section of road and see an adult male Northern Harrier fly past if it is the same bird. I will never know but I like to think that he is still hanging around and doing well.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":159178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[27,1148,348,26],"tags":[2663,765,7755,5047,2783,3164,4033,4169,2386,4067,4062,4006,4104,4046,153,2239],"class_list":["post-55153","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-eye-contact","tag-first-spring","tag-harrier","tag-harriers","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-utah","tag-immature","tag-male","tag-northern-harrier","tag-perched","tag-portrait","tag-raptors","tag-sub-adult"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-1st-spring-male-mia-mcpherson-4864.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-elz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":46738,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/05\/13\/two-months-of-photographing-a-cooperative-northern-harrier\/","url_meta":{"origin":55153,"position":0},"title":"Two Months of Photographing a Cooperative Northern Harrier","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"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.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Northern Harrier in his first Spring, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-box-elder-county-mia-mcpherson-7409.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-box-elder-county-mia-mcpherson-7409.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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it.","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 male Northern Harrier flying over a wintry marsh, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-immature-male-flight-marsh-mia-mcpherson-8789.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-immature-male-flight-marsh-mia-mcpherson-8789.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-immature-male-flight-marsh-mia-mcpherson-8789.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/northern-harrier-immature-female-flight-mia-mcpherson-2210.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-female-flight-mia-mcpherson-2210.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/northern-harrier-immature-female-flight-mia-mcpherson-2210.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/northern-harrier-immature-female-flight-mia-mcpherson-2210.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":55153,"position":4},"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, 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