{"id":75090,"date":"2020-11-04T05:59:35","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T12:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=75090"},"modified":"2021-09-22T13:31:07","modified_gmt":"2021-09-22T19:31:07","slug":"an-immature-light-morph-ferruginous-hawk-in-the-west-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/11\/04\/an-immature-light-morph-ferruginous-hawk-in-the-west-desert\/","title":{"rendered":"An Immature Light Morph Ferruginous Hawk In The West Desert"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ImmatureImmature Ferruginous Hawk perched on a cedar post \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

The highlight of my morning yesterday was when I spotted an immature light morph Ferruginous Hawk perched on a cedar post in the West Desert. When I first saw it I was so far away that I couldn’t tell if it was a flyer someone had stapled to the top of a fence post or if it was a bird. It didn’t take me long to figure out that it was a raptor and more specifically a light morph Ferruginous Hawk because of its large bulky shape and bright white belly that glowed in the early morning light as if it were a beacon.<\/p>\n

I took a nice long series of the young hawk as it looked around from its perch.<\/p>\n

\"ImmatureImmature Ferruginous Hawk flying low over a gravel road \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

I could tell something had caught the young hawk’s attention so I kept my eye on it and started photographing it before it left the fence post. The immature hawk swept down low over the gravel road…<\/p>\n

\"YoungYoung Ferruginous Hawk flying over a dusty gravel road \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

And started gaining altitude halfway over the dusty gravel road. With its large wings even a single stroke of them propelled it higher into the air.<\/p>\n

\"ImmatureImmature Ferruginous Hawk turning in flight \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

As the Ferruginous Hawk gained altitude it turned almost directly towards me in flight. The foothills of the mountains behind it created a lovely background.<\/p>\n

In the interest of full disclosure there was a bright specular highlight on the left side of the frame in this photo that was from an unknown source that was distracting. I removed it in post processing.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"ImmatureImmature Ferruginous Hawk flying towards me \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/500, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

As the immature Ferruginous Hawk flew closer to me the background changed to the partially shaded and sunlit mountain tops. I know this background looks like the sky and clouds but the mountain peaks can look that way at times.<\/p>\n

After this last photo was taken the Ferruginous Hawk was so close I clipped every image at the end of the series that I took of this young raptor.<\/p>\n

One bird can make my day. Yesterday that bird was this striking Ferruginous Hawk.<\/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":"

The highlight of my morning yesterday was when I spotted an immature light morph Ferruginous Hawk perched on a cedar post in the West Desert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95347,"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_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,1069,1316,358,26,1314],"tags":[970,2663,4268,2497,10597,4098,4620,898,2092,4052,4122,7017,5292,4033,4169,2386,4067,2670,6278,10596,153,10452,6867,8917,4193],"class_list":["post-75090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-ferruginous-hawks","category-stansbury-mountains-utah","category-tooele-county","category-utah","category-west-desert-utah","tag-autumn","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-buteo-regalis","tag-buteos","tag-cedar-post","tag-desert","tag-fall","tag-fence-post","tag-ferruginous-hawk","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-foothills","tag-gravel-road","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-utah","tag-immature","tag-light-morph","tag-low","tag-prched","tag-raptors","tag-sky-island-mountains","tag-turning","tag-wooden-post","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t