{"id":61501,"date":"2019-11-18T05:21:27","date_gmt":"2019-11-18T12:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=61501"},"modified":"2023-11-24T03:53:53","modified_gmt":"2023-11-24T10:53:53","slug":"dark-morph-ferruginous-hawk-on-the-hunt-in-the-west-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/11\/18\/dark-morph-ferruginous-hawk-on-the-hunt-in-the-west-desert\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark Morph Ferruginous Hawk On The Hunt In The West Desert"},"content":{"rendered":"

I went out to try to get Brown Creeper photos again yesterday morning and was only able to take a few crappy, long distance images of them but I had a nice encounter with an adult dark morph Ferruginous Hawk that made my day.<\/p>\n

\"DarkDark morph Ferruginous Hawk on the hunt \u2013 Nikon D500, f6.3, 1\/4000, ISO 500, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

It has been a long time since I had a dark morph Ferruginous Hawk in my view finder so when I spotted it hovering over a field I knew I had to stop and get photos of it. After an unsuccessful dive at prey the regal hawk flew in closer which allowed me to take a few nice images of it.<\/p>\n

I see far more light morph Ferruginous Hawks than I do dark morphs which is normal. There are more light morphs of this species than there are dark morphs.<\/p>\n

\"DarkDark morph Ferruginous Hawk in flight over a field \u2013 Nikon D500, f6.3, 1\/4000, ISO 500, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

The Ferruginous Hawk flew past and then up higher into the sky where it hovered in flight over the field again until I lost sight of it. I’ve seen more Ferruginous Hawks in the past month than I’ve seen all summer and I’m hoping this handsome, dark morph hangs around so that I have more opportunities to photograph it perched, preening, resting and on the wing.<\/p>\n

It was wonderful to see and point out this hawk on the hunt, it was the highlight of my morning.<\/p>\n

I also took some nice Mountain Chickadee and Red-breasted Nuthatch photos yesterday morning and enjoyed the beautiful views.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

It has been a long time since I had a dark morph Ferruginous Hawk in my view finder so when I spotted it hovering over a field I knew I had to stop and get photos of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[27,1069,358,26,1314],"tags":[4004,970,2663,2069,4268,2497,4530,4098,4620,2092,4052,4122,7017,4033,4169,2386,3970,8008,153],"class_list":["post-61501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-ferruginous-hawks","category-tooele-county","category-utah","category-west-desert-utah","tag-adult","tag-autumn","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-blue-sky","tag-buteo-regalis","tag-buteos","tag-dark-morph","tag-desert","tag-fall","tag-ferruginous-hawk","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-foothills","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-utah","tag-hunting","tag-on-the-hunt","tag-raptors"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/ferruginous-hawk-dark-morph-flight-mia-mcpherson-3648.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-fZX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":118517,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/11\/24\/dark-morph-ferruginous-hawk-in-the-west-desert\/","url_meta":{"origin":61501,"position":0},"title":"Dark Morph Ferruginous Hawk In The West Desert","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 24, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Four years ago today, I found this gorgeous dark morph Ferruginous Hawk perched on a juniper fence post in the West Desert. 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