{"id":80204,"date":"2021-03-03T05:55:49","date_gmt":"2021-03-03T12:55:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=80204"},"modified":"2025-03-01T15:35:28","modified_gmt":"2025-03-01T21:35:28","slug":"west-desert-male-rough-legged-hawk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/03\/03\/west-desert-male-rough-legged-hawk\/","title":{"rendered":"West Desert Male Rough-legged Hawk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday morning\u00a0 was clear, bright, chilly, and I spent ten minutes photographing an adult male Rough-legged Hawk that I found in the West Desert. After pointing out the hawk, I got ready to photograph him.<\/p>\n

\"AlertAlert Rough-legged Hawk male perched on a fence post \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The male Rough-legged Hawk was perched on a juniper fence post with foothills behind it that had some snow on them. By using the elevated perch the hawk scanned the grassy slopes for prey. In this photo I believe the hawk may have spotted prey off in the distance.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult male Rough-legged Hawk lifting off from a fence post \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

A few frames later the male Rough-legged Hawk lifted off from the wooden fence post, turned to the north, and kited over over the grassy foothills. I did not see it catch prey.<\/p>\n

I have other photos of this Rough-legged Hawk on this fence post that I plan to share sometime in the future but this lift off photo was one of my favorites from yesterday.\u00a0 I almost clipped the tip of his right wing in this frame.<\/p>\n

\"MaleMale Rough-legged Hawk on top of a large boulder \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Later in the morning I spotted the Rough-legged Hawk again but he lifted off and landed on a huge boulder to the south. The light angle I had wasn’t quite as optimal as I had had earlier in the morning although I still liked the photos I took of him.<\/p>\n

The day before I found this hawk I had photographed another male at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/span><\/a>. I was disappointed with those images because they were soft due to heat wave distortion. Yesterday there was enough of a breeze on the foothills that all of my photos of this male Roughie were sharp.<\/p>\n

Our Rough-legged Hawks<\/span><\/a> will be migrating soon. I’m delighted that I found this male in the West Desert yesterday. Will he be the last one I photograph this season? I hope not.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

Yesterday morning\u00a0 was clear, bright, chilly, and I spent ten minutes photographing an adult male Rough-legged Hawk that I found in the West Desert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":141001,"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":[27,1087,358,26,1314],"tags":[4004,4540,2663,4138,4275,2497,898,4052,4033,4169,2386,3291,4282,4944,4062,4104,153,1648,3792,8917],"class_list":["post-80204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-rough-legged-hawks","category-tooele-county","category-utah","category-west-desert-utah","tag-adult","tag-alert","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-boulder","tag-buteo-lagopus","tag-buteos","tag-fence-post","tag-flight","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-utah","tag-lichen","tag-lift-off","tag-lifting-off","tag-male","tag-perched","tag-raptors","tag-rough-legged-hawk","tag-take-off","tag-wooden-post"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/rough-legged-hawk-adult-male-west-desert-mia-mcpherson-6454.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-kRC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":96216,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/10\/13\/on-the-lookout-for-my-first-of-season-rough-legged-hawk\/","url_meta":{"origin":80204,"position":0},"title":"On The Lookout For My First Of Season Rough-legged Hawk","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 13, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I am now on the lookout for my first of season Rough-legged Hawk. I hope to spot one soon.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult male light morph Rough-legged Hawk on a rock pile, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-adult-male-rocks-and-mountains-mia-mcpherson-4354.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-adult-male-rocks-and-mountains-mia-mcpherson-4354.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-adult-male-rocks-and-mountains-mia-mcpherson-4354.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-adult-male-rocks-and-mountains-mia-mcpherson-4354.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":74760,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/10\/19\/on-the-lookout-for-rough-legged-hawks\/","url_meta":{"origin":80204,"position":1},"title":"On The Lookout For Rough-Legged Hawks","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 19, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm hoping that this week I'll be able to spot my first of the season Rough-legged Hawks and that I'll be able to get photos of them too. Fingers are crossed!","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":"Immature Rough-legged Hawk perched on a snow-covered cliff, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-immature-snow-mia-mcpherson-3435.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-immature-snow-mia-mcpherson-3435.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-immature-snow-mia-mcpherson-3435.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-immature-snow-mia-mcpherson-3435.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":97011,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/11\/06\/how-i-found-my-first-of-season-rough-legged-hawks\/","url_meta":{"origin":80204,"position":2},"title":"How I Found My First Of Season Rough-legged Hawks","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 6, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"It was a very memorable first of year sighting of these Rough-legged Hawks. The kind where you sit there wondering if you really saw what you saw.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Rough-legged Hawks with prey plus a Common Raven, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/rough-legged-hawks-common-raven-prey-mia-mcpherson-3342.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/rough-legged-hawks-common-raven-prey-mia-mcpherson-3342.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/rough-legged-hawks-common-raven-prey-mia-mcpherson-3342.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/rough-legged-hawks-common-raven-prey-mia-mcpherson-3342.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":61678,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/11\/25\/light-morph-rough-legged-hawk-in-the-west-desert\/","url_meta":{"origin":80204,"position":3},"title":"Light Morph Rough-legged Hawk In The West Desert","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 25, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"There was a stiff breeze blowing and when the light morph Rough-legged Hawk lifted off from the juniper it seemed to me as if he did it in slow motion.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Light morph male Rough-legged Hawk lifting off from a juniper, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-adult-flight-mia-mcpherson-4572.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-adult-flight-mia-mcpherson-4572.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-adult-flight-mia-mcpherson-4572.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-adult-flight-mia-mcpherson-4572.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":79806,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/02\/26\/male-rough-legged-hawk-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":80204,"position":4},"title":"Male Rough-legged Hawk Photos","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 26, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Earlier this week I photographed a light morph, adult male Rough-legged Hawk in the West Desert of Utah with three different backgrounds.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult male Rough-legged Hawk with snowy mountains in the background, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-adult-male-rocks-and-mountains-mia-mcpherson-4371.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-adult-male-rocks-and-mountains-mia-mcpherson-4371.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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