{"id":8049,"date":"2013-04-07T05:27:23","date_gmt":"2013-04-07T11:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=8049"},"modified":"2024-02-04T07:51:48","modified_gmt":"2024-02-04T14:51:48","slug":"a-juvenile-red-shouldered-hawk-learning-to-hunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/04\/07\/a-juvenile-red-shouldered-hawk-learning-to-hunt\/","title":{"rendered":"Juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk Learning To Hunt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PortraitPortrait of a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk – Nikon D70, handheld. f5.6, 1\/200, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 300mm, flash fired, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

In July of 2007 I was fortunate to follow and photograph a family of Red-shouldered Hawks at Sawgrass Lake Park<\/span><\/a> in Florida for a few weeks\u00a0when the fledglings were learning to hunt for themselves. Because Sawgrass Lake Park has a high number of visitors each day the hawks were used to people and didn’t flush easily.<\/p>\n

This juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk was perched on a metal fence post so I opted to go for a portrait to remove the “hand of man”. My EXIF information doesn’t list the ISO used for this shot but I do know that the auto flash fired. I was still using my Nikon D70 when all of these images were created.<\/p>\n

\"Red-shoulderedRed-shouldered Hawk juvenile – Nikon D70, handheld, f5.6, 1\/320, ISO 640, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 300mm, flash fired, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

The day after the portrait above was taken I was back at Sawgrass Lake Park hoping for decent light and to find the young hawks again. I found the Red-shouldered juveniles but the light wasn’t great because of thunder storms rolling through the area. I had been photographing this immature Red-Shouldered Hawk as it perched in a pine tree when it flew directly at me and as it flew over my head I could feel the whoosh of air from its wings. I thought the young hawk was going to carry off the straw hat I was wearing but as I turned I could see it had landed on the ground about 15 feet from me and was dispatching what appeared to be a Palmetto Bug.<\/p>\n

\"JuvenileJuvenile Red-shouldered Hawk trying to catch a Yellow Rat Snake – Nikon D70, handheld, f4.8, 1\/400, ISO 1000, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 80mm, flash fired, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Not long after the juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk ate the Palmetto Bug I could hear another Red-shouldered Hawk calling and the hawk I was photographing flew towards the sound. I slowly followed the sound and used the trunks of trees as blinds as I walked. I came up on two young Red-shouldered Hawks, one on the fence and the other was perched higher in a tree above the hawk you see in this frame. The hawks were very interested in trying to catch this Yellow Rat Snake (Elaphe obsoleta<\/em>)\u00a0that had woven its body through the links of the fence. I took a few images and left because I didn’t want to disrupt the hawks.<\/p>\n

The next time I went to the park I measured one of the square links in the fence and according to my calculations this snake was over 6 foot in length. Sorry about the poor quality of the last image, it was dark under the trees and there was a light rain falling but I did want to capture the interactions I was observing.<\/p>\n

I enjoyed following this family of Red-shouldered Hawks that summer.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

This juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk was perched on a metal fence post so I opted to go for a portrait to remove the “hand of man”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":120470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_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":[27,25,2000,882,883],"tags":[2663,4219,2497,4142,2184,3830,644,14686,4033,4169,3184,3970,4067,4071,156,5784,4046,4106,153,4218,5785,2315,9464,2183,4193],"class_list":["post-8049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-florida","category-pinellas-county-florida","category-red-shouldered-hawks","category-sawgrass-county-park","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-buteo-lineatus","tag-buteos","tag-close-up","tag-elaphe-obsoleta","tag-fence","tag-fledglings","tag-hardwood-forest-swamp","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-florida","tag-hunting","tag-immature","tag-juvenile","tag-low-light-2","tag-palmetto-bug","tag-portrait","tag-prey","tag-raptors","tag-red-shouldered-hawk","tag-snake","tag-summer-3","tag-swamp","tag-yellow-rat-snake","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