{"id":5841,"date":"2012-08-02T14:11:28","date_gmt":"2012-08-02T20:11:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=5841"},"modified":"2025-12-14T10:21:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T16:21:40","slug":"the-price-for-these-red-tailed-hawk-images","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/08\/02\/the-price-for-these-red-tailed-hawk-images\/","title":{"rendered":"The Price For These Red-tailed Hawk Images"},"content":{"rendered":"

I thought I was going to get “skunked” on Antelope Island this morning, skunked meaning not bringing home any decent shots of birds. The island has been slow lately, it always is in August but maybe the drought this year is making it worse.<\/p>\n

Even the Burrowing Owls didn’t seem to want to come up and perch on the sagebrushes. It was hot when the day started.<\/p>\n

\"Juvie<\/p>\n

Juvie Red-tailed flying towards a rocky perch – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/1600, ISO 500, +0.3, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

After having driven around the north end of the island we headed south thinking there probably wouldn’t be much to shoot there… until I spotted this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk perching on some of the darker rocks on the island.<\/p>\n

I’ve long hoped to find a raptor perched on those dark rocks and today I did. The juvie perched for a while as I photographed it and then it may have seen prey because it lifted off and dove into the grasses not too far from the perch it had just left.<\/p>\n

I watched it walking around in the grasses through my lens hoping that it would go back to the rock it had been on.<\/p>\n

In this frame the hawk was heading towards the perch I first spotted it on.<\/p>\n

\"JuvenileJuvenile Red-tailed about to land on a new perch – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/1250, ISO 500, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

When I took this frame I realized the hawk was much closer than what I would have expected it to be and it struck me that\u00a0the young raptor\u00a0might land closer to me than it had been before.<\/p>\n

I kept my toes crossed because my fingers were busy. Good thing I was wearing my hiking sandals.<\/p>\n

\"Red-tailedRed-tailed Hawk juvenile perched on dark rocks – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/2500, ISO 500, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

The juvenile Red-tailed Hawk landed on top of these richly toned, dark rocks that was much closer than where I had originally seen it.<\/p>\n

By then\u00a0the morning\u00a0was getting warm (okay, it was hot)\u00a0and the bird kept its wings slightly away from its body in an effort to keep cool.<\/p>\n

\"Red-tailedRed-tailed juvenile crouching for lift off – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/1250, ISO 320, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 328mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

After a few minutes I could tell by the bird’s behavior that it might lift off so I backed up my zoom hoping that when it took flight I wouldn’t clip the wings.<\/p>\n

Then I saw it crouch and knew it was lifting off. The frame after this one, the one where the hawk had its wings high over its head? I still clipped it even after I had backed up my zoom.<\/p>\n

It was such a great pose. I’m kicking my own butt for messing that shot up.<\/p>\n

\"JuvenileJuvenile Red-tailed Hawk lifting off – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/1250, ISO 320, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 321mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

I backed up my zoom a touch more as I was shooting in a burst and in this frame which was immediately after the one I messed up I was able to get the whole bird in without clipping anything. Yay!<\/p>\n

\"AirborneAirborne juvenile Red-tailed Hawk – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/1250, ISO 320, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 314mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

I was still backing up the zoom for the next frame because the bird was flying even closer to me\u00a0than it was the frame before (above) and didn’t clip the wing tips in this one.<\/p>\n

The juvenile Red-tailed Hawk<\/span><\/a> flew towards some rocks to the south and we went back to see if we could get more images of it. We did but the bird wasn’t as close to us as it was in this series of frames.<\/p>\n

I mentioned a “price” in the title and I don’t want to leave that hanging.<\/p>\n

Just after the young hawk took off from its perch the first time I felt a stinging pain on the right side of my neck and knew I was getting bit so I slapped at my neck and killed a Deer Fly.<\/p>\n

I kept on shooting and by the time we went south to photograph the Red-tailed Hawk on the other rocks I realized my neck was swelling and popped 12.5 milligrams of Benadryl into my mouth and swallowed it.<\/p>\n

Once we left the hawk to head north again I took another 12.5 milligrams hoping to stop any further swelling. Right now I’ve got a swollen red welt on the right side of my neck from my collarbone to just below my chin.<\/p>\n

Were these images worth the price? You betcha!<\/p>\n

But now I need to sleep off the Benadryl.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

After having driven around the north end of the island we headed south thinking there probably wouldn’t be much to shoot there… until I spotted this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk perching on some of the darker rocks on the island. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":165883,"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":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[511,27,449,26],"tags":[4021,4083,4170,4052,4067,4071,4282,4104,4209,1949,4032],"class_list":["post-5841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-avian","category-red-tailed-hawks","category-utah","tag-bird-photography","tag-birding","tag-buteo-jamaicensis","tag-flight","tag-immature","tag-juvenile","tag-lift-off","tag-perched","tag-red-tailed-hawk","tag-western-red-tailed-hawk","tag-wildlife-photography"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-mia-mcpherson-6709.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-1wd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6705,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/12\/04\/photographing-red-tailed-hawk-juvies-on-the-wing\/","url_meta":{"origin":5841,"position":0},"title":"Photographing Red-tailed Hawk Juveniles On The Wing","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"These are a just few images that I have edited taken since August of Red-tailed Hawk juveniles on Antelope Island State Park.","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":"Red-tailed juvenile landing on a rock outcropping, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-juvenile-landing-mia-mcpherson-9128.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-juvenile-landing-mia-mcpherson-9128.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-juvenile-landing-mia-mcpherson-9128.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-juvenile-landing-mia-mcpherson-9128.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6686,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/12\/01\/juvenile-red-tailed-hawk\/","url_meta":{"origin":5841,"position":1},"title":"Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the nice things about cruddy weather is that I get the chance to edit some of the images that are languishing in my files that I have taken but not gotten around to processing. Here are a few of a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk photographed in August on Antelope\u2026","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":"Red-tailed Hawk juvenile flying between rock faces, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-4232-flight.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-4232-flight.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-4232-flight.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-4232-flight.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6085,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/09\/09\/more-raptor-rapture-red-tailed-hawk-juvenile\/","url_meta":{"origin":5841,"position":2},"title":"More Raptor Rapture – Red-tailed Hawk Juvenile","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"These juvenile Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) images were taken on two consecutive days last week. I'm always excited to have a bird in my view finder and when I can photograph hawks for two days in a row... I feel raptor rapture.","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":"Look of determination on a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-juvenile-flight-mia-mcpherson-5122.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-juvenile-flight-mia-mcpherson-5122.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-juvenile-flight-mia-mcpherson-5122.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-4470-fly-by.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-4470-fly-by.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-4470-fly-by.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-4470-fly-by.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9605,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/09\/27\/red-tailed-hawk-juveniles-on-the-wing\/","url_meta":{"origin":5841,"position":4},"title":"Red-tailed Hawk Juveniles On The Wing","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the Red-tailed Hawk juveniles I photographed on Antelope Island last year has \"migrated\" to Switzerland where my photo of it will be featured on a 5 x 15 meter billboard for a yacht company.","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":"Red-tailed Hawk juvenile flying on an autumn day, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/red-tailed-hawk-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-7507.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/red-tailed-hawk-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-7507.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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