{"id":8349,"date":"2013-05-15T03:45:18","date_gmt":"2013-05-15T09:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=8349"},"modified":"2026-04-28T07:10:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T12:10:56","slug":"swainsons-hawk-in-the-centennial-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/05\/15\/swainsons-hawk-in-the-centennial-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"Swainson’s Hawk in the Centennial Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AdultAdult Swainson\u2019s perched on a post in the Centennial Valley<\/span><\/p>\n

Swainson’s Hawks are one of the three Buteos that I see with regularity on my visits to the Centennial Valley of Montana, Red-tailed and Ferruginous Hawks are the other two.\u00a0 I photographed this adult Swainson’s Hawk in the Centennial Valley one evening last year on the Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge<\/span><\/a> after a rainy afternoon. The light was low and I had to bump my ISO up to 1250 to get enough shutter speed for flight shots and because of that I could detect a touch of noise in the background so I applied Noise Reduction to the background of all three of these images.<\/p>\n

The Swainson’s was calling to another Swainson’s off in the distance and since it had just defecated I was waiting for the hawk to lift off.<\/p>\n

\"AdultSwainson’s Hawk at the moment of lift off<\/span><\/p>\n

And lift off it did! This sort of reminds me of the Olympic diver images we see that have just their toes left on the diving platforms. The talons have just left the fence post and there appears to be a determined look in the Swainson’s Hawk’s eye. I do wish the light had been just a bit better so I could have completely froze the action but sometimes that motion blur helps to emphasize the feeling of motion.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult Swainson’s Hawk calling while in flight<\/span><\/p>\n

As the adult flew it also started calling and flying towards the other Swainson’s in the distance.<\/p>\n

By the way, the light colored areas in the background is a mist hanging over one of the lakes within the Red Rock Lakes refuge and the bluish colored area is part of the Centennial Mountains.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my Swainson\u2019s Hawk photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Swainson’s Hawks are one of the three Buteos that I see with regularity on my visits to the Centennial Valley of Montana, Red-tailed and Ferruginous Hawks are the other two. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":121348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1513,27,223,12,608,206],"tags":[4004,2663,4200,4072,3830,898,4052,4122,4033,4169,4282,4944,153,4034,3792],"class_list":["post-8349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beaverhead-county-montana","category-avian","category-centennial-valley","category-montana","category-red-rock-lakes-national-wildlife-refuge","category-swainson-hawks","tag-adult","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-buteo-swainsoni","tag-calling","tag-fence","tag-fence-post","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-lift-off","tag-lifting-off","tag-raptors","tag-swainsons-hawk","tag-take-off"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/swainsons-hawk-adult-lift-off-mia-mcpherson-1599.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-2aF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":105569,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/08\/29\/dark-morph-swainsons-hawk-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":8349,"position":0},"title":"Dark Morph Swainson’s Hawk Photos","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 29, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Early yesterday morning on my way to the auto tour route at Bear River MBR I was delighted to see and photograph not just one dark morph Swainson's Hawk but two.","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":"Adult dark morph Swainson's Hawk in lift off pose, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, 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2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week I saw my first of the season Swainson's Hawk not too far from the visitor's center at Bear River National Wildlife Refuge and that got me excited.","rel":"","context":"In "Beaverhead County"","block_context":{"text":"Beaverhead County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/montana\/beaverhead-county-montana\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sub-adult Swainson\u2019s Hawk, Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Centennial Valley, Beaverhead County, Montana","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/swainsons-hawk-sub-adult-mia-mcpherson-7348.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/swainsons-hawk-sub-adult-mia-mcpherson-7348.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Montana","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 17, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This adult Swainson's had two juveniles nearby that were perched on the conifer tree that their natal nest was in and the sun was getting close to setting. Sometimes I wish I could \"speak\" raptor so I could know what they are saying.","rel":"","context":"In "Beaverhead County"","block_context":{"text":"Beaverhead County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/montana\/beaverhead-county-montana\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Calling adult Swainson's Hawk","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/swainsons-hawk-adult-calling-mia-mcpherson-3534.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/swainsons-hawk-adult-calling-mia-mcpherson-3534.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/swainsons-hawk-adult-calling-mia-mcpherson-3534.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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