{"id":63123,"date":"2020-01-21T06:23:56","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T13:23:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=63123"},"modified":"2025-08-15T03:26:34","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T08:26:34","slug":"red-tailed-hawk-on-rusting-farm-machinery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/01\/21\/red-tailed-hawk-on-rusting-farm-machinery\/","title":{"rendered":"Red-tailed Hawk On Rusting Farm Machinery"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AdultAdult Red-tailed Hawk perched on old, rusty farm machinery – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/6400, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

When I first visited Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/span><\/a> in May of 2009 and saw a row of rusty farm machinery near the road that leads to the auto tour route I wanted to be able to photograph a raptor perched on the old equipment.<\/p>\n

I thought that the resulting photos would look great and every time I go past that area I look and hope to find a raptor there.<\/p>\n

It took just a few months short of eleven years to finally get a raptor perched on the rusty farm machinery.<\/p>\n

When I spotted an adult Red-tailed Hawk on one of the pieces of rusty machinery two days ago on my way home from the auto tour route at the refuge I knew I had<\/em> to get some photos of it.<\/p>\n

In that moment I wanted the photos more than I wanted to breathe.<\/p>\n

The Red-tailed Hawk is small in the frame because it had perched on one of the last pieces of equipment in the row but I liked the images I took anyway because that gave all of the photos a “sense of place” that would have been lacking if the hawk had been closer and filled the frame more.<\/p>\n

I am going to keep looking for raptors on that decaying row of farm machinery because one day I might get lucky and have a bird of prey perched closer to the road.<\/p>\n

\"Me<\/p>\n

Why do I love that rusting, old machinery so much? Because I started out my life as a farmer’s daughter which is why I connect to and love farms and old farming stuff.<\/p>\n

This is me at 20 months old sitting on a tractor eating bread or a sandwich. I’m always going to be a country girl at heart.<\/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":"

When I spotted an adult Red-tailed Hawk on one of the pieces of rusty machinery two days ago on my way home from the auto tour route at the refuge I knew I had to get some photos of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":152257,"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":[124,27,1148,449,26],"tags":[4004,2663,4170,2497,8432,8433,4033,4169,2386,2338,4104,153,4209,5668,4050,373],"class_list":["post-63123","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-red-tailed-hawks","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-buteo-jamaicensis","tag-buteos","tag-farm-equipment","tag-farm-machinery","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-utah","tag-old","tag-perched","tag-raptors","tag-red-tailed-hawk","tag-rusty","tag-snow","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-rusty-old-farm-equipment-mia-mcpherson-4367.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-gq7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":120820,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/02\/10\/young-red-tailed-hawk-up-close\/","url_meta":{"origin":63123,"position":0},"title":"Young 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I shared one image a few days ago and here are a few more.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature Red-tailed Hawk taking off from a cliff, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-desert-mia-mcpherson-2032.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-desert-mia-mcpherson-2032.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-desert-mia-mcpherson-2032.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Rough-legged Hawk, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-dike-mia-mcpherson-1530.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-dike-mia-mcpherson-1530.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-dike-mia-mcpherson-1530.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-dike-mia-mcpherson-1530.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":61311,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/11\/10\/immature-red-tailed-hawk-close-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":63123,"position":4},"title":"Immature Red-tailed Hawk Close Up","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 10, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The thing about this immature Red-tailed Hawk photo is this: I don't like the background color because I see these colors, tones and hues so frequently where I live in northern Utah.","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 Red-tailed Hawk in front of a field of grass, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, 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McPherson","date":"January 24, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I keep wondering if I will see this big, gorgeous, rufous Red-tailed Hawk female in my viewfinder again this year.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Rufous Red-tailed Hawk female flying past me, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-rufous-female-on-the-wing-mia-mcpherson-5722.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-rufous-female-on-the-wing-mia-mcpherson-5722.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-rufous-female-on-the-wing-mia-mcpherson-5722.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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