{"id":74166,"date":"2020-09-27T05:37:32","date_gmt":"2020-09-27T11:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=74166"},"modified":"2024-08-29T13:19:45","modified_gmt":"2024-08-29T18:19:45","slug":"adult-red-tailed-hawk-with-a-snake-in-the-west-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/09\/27\/adult-red-tailed-hawk-with-a-snake-in-the-west-desert\/","title":{"rendered":"Adult Red-tailed Hawk With A Snake In The West Desert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week I shared a photo of a Warbling Vireo and fall colors<\/span><\/a> that I photographed on a rushed trip out into the West Desert and in that post I mentioned that on my way down the mountain that I stopped long enough to photograph a Red-tailed Hawk with a snake before I headed home. Today I want to share two images of that Red-tailed Hawk with the snake.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult Red-tailed Hawk with a snake in grasses \u2013 Nikon D500, f5.6, 1\/8000, ISO 1000, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

In that vireo post I mentioned that I was rushed and that I don’t like to rush or be rushed when I am out in the field. Until I am actually headed home on the Interstate I like to take as much time as possible scanning the sky, ground, trees, rocks and grasses for birds and animals as I can. That is how I found this Red-tailed Hawk.<\/p>\n

I noticed immediately that the Red-tailed Hawk was on prey because I saw it tearing into something despite the grasses that were partially obstructing my view. I drove east of the hawk, turned my Jeep around and drove west to park along the side of the dusty road before I realized the hawk had a snake.<\/p>\n

The light angle wasn’t great and the setting was messy but I watched as the hawk tore into the snake with its back to me for a minute or two before the hawk turned more towards me.<\/p>\n

I should explain my settings for these images. The birds I was photographing prior to the hawk were in a heavily forested and shaded area where I needed every bit of shutter speed I could get thus the high ISO. I didn’t think about changing my settings when I pulled up on the hawk and I should have but I was feeling rushed. Rushed to photograph the hawk and rushed to get home.<\/p>\n

\"Red-tailedRed-tailed Hawk lifting off with a snake in its talons \u2013 Nikon D500, f5.6, 1\/8000, ISO 1000, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

And I felt even more rushed when I saw a pickup in my rear view mirror rumbling up the road behind me. Over the years I have learned that some birds will tolerate one vehicle parked near them but will flush if more come along and as I watched the hawk though my viewfinder I could see that it was becoming anxious as the pickup barreled towards us.<\/p>\n

It came as no surprise to me that when the pickup was about 100 feet away from the rear end of my Jeep the Red-tailed Hawk grabbed the snake and lifted off. With its back towards me.<\/p>\n

My guess is that the hawk felt rushed too. I watched as the Red-tailed Hawk landed near a large boulder in the field of grasses and decided that I would leave it alone to finish its meal in peace.<\/p>\n

Then I turned my Jeep around and headed home so I could take the phone call that had made me feel under pressure all morning long.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

By the way, I believe the prey the hawk had was a Gopher Snake<\/span><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Red-tailed Hawk photos plus\u00a0 facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I noticed immediately that the Red-tailed Hawk was on prey because I saw it tearing into something despite the grasses that were partially obstructing my view.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":133359,"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":[27,449,358,26,1314],"tags":[4004,2663,4170,2497,4098,10475,4109,4537,4033,4169,10474,4106,153,4209,5785,7145],"class_list":["post-74166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-red-tailed-hawks","category-tooele-county","category-utah","category-west-desert-utah","tag-adult","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-buteo-jamaicensis","tag-buteos","tag-desert","tag-gopher-snake","tag-grasses","tag-grassland","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-pituophis-catenifer","tag-prey","tag-raptors","tag-red-tailed-hawk","tag-snake","tag-snakes"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/red-tailed-hawk-gopher-snake-mia-mcpherson-1647.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-jie","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":106793,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/10\/04\/red-tailed-hawk-waiting-for-the-light\/","url_meta":{"origin":74166,"position":0},"title":"Red-tailed Hawk Waiting For The Light","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 4, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"My favorite of the hawks I photographed in the West Desert yesterday was this adult Red-tailed Hawk on a fence post waiting for the morning light.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Red-tailed Hawk waiting for the morning light, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-before-dawns-light-mia-mcpherson-8034.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-before-dawns-light-mia-mcpherson-8034.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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