{"id":9237,"date":"2013-08-23T03:45:49","date_gmt":"2013-08-23T09:45:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=9237"},"modified":"2025-12-18T06:29:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T12:29:54","slug":"frustrations-in-bird-photography-dark-morph-ferruginous-hawk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/08\/23\/frustrations-in-bird-photography-dark-morph-ferruginous-hawk\/","title":{"rendered":"Frustrations in Bird Photography – Dark Morph Ferruginous Hawk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DarkDark morph Ferruginous Hawk with annoying power lines – One of the frustrations in bird photography<\/span><\/p>\n

Bird photography isn’t easy. Long hours in the field are necessary, plenty of time spent culling images, plus the investment of energy and time learning all about your gear and developing techniques and then… there are still<\/em> plenty frustrations in bird photography.<\/p>\n

One of those frustrations for me when photographing raptors is power lines. Raptors here in the west often perch on power poles so they are high up and can spot their prey below and also long distances away. The power poles themselves aren’t all that appealing looking so I am usually looking for lift off shots or for the birds to fly past or in front of me.<\/p>\n

The dark morph Ferruginous Hawk above had just lifted off from a power pole when I photographed it with a partly cloudy sky in the background. A great pose with uplifted wings, trailing talons, nice background, lovely eye contact, and because the bird was calling the hawk looked even more powerful than normal.<\/p>\n

But the power lines crossed right through the wings of the raptor ruining what could have been a terrific shot.<\/p>\n

\"DarkDark Morph Ferruginous Hawk between power lines<\/span><\/p>\n

In the very next frame the hawk was still screeching, I had a nice wing position, great eye contact, and the hawk didn’t have any of the power lines crossing its body. The power lines were both awfully close though and I don’t really have a great feeling when it comes to cloning things out of my images so this frame was very frustrating for me to see on my screen.<\/p>\n

\"DarkDark morph Ferruginous Hawk in flight
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Three frames later I was able to get a frame where the power lines were far enough away from the bird (above and below) that I could crop the frame and didn’t need to clone at all. Great pose, light on the underside of the wings, nice wing position, and the bird was still screaming.<\/p>\n

I am very happy to have this image of the Ferruginous Hawk screaming without the power lines plus this image will always remind me of the company of two friends that I shared the day with as we drove around looking for raptors in northern Utah.<\/p>\n

In the ten frames after the Ferruginous Hawk<\/span><\/a> left the power pole and I had one image that I felt was a “keeper”. Frustrating?<\/p>\n

Certainly, but I can promise I never get bored being a bird photographer despite those frustrations. I might even revel in them.<\/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 dark morph Ferruginous Hawk above had just lifted off from a power pole when I photographed it with a partly cloudy sky in the background.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95534,"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":[27,1148,1069,510,26],"tags":[4004,2663,4268,2497,4530,11563,2092,4052,4122,1023,4033,4169,2386,6027,2328,153,2327,2315],"class_list":["post-9237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-ferruginous-hawks","category-frustrations-in-bird-photography","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-buteo-regalis","tag-buteos","tag-dark-morph","tag-farmlands","tag-ferruginous-hawk","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-frustrations-in-bird-photography1","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-utah","tag-open-wings","tag-power-lines","tag-raptors","tag-screaming","tag-summer-3"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/ferruginous-hawk-dark-morph-mia-mcpherson-1225.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-2oZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":118517,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/11\/24\/dark-morph-ferruginous-hawk-in-the-west-desert\/","url_meta":{"origin":9237,"position":0},"title":"Dark Morph Ferruginous Hawk In The West Desert","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 24, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Four years ago today, I found this gorgeous dark morph Ferruginous Hawk perched on a juniper fence post in the West Desert. I spotted it from about a mile away.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Lifting off dark morph Ferruginous Hawk, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ferruginous-hawk-dark-morph-west-desert-mia-mcpherson-4510.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ferruginous-hawk-dark-morph-west-desert-mia-mcpherson-4510.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ferruginous-hawk-dark-morph-west-desert-mia-mcpherson-4510.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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26, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Knowing what kind of habitat Ferruginous Hawks prefer during all four seasons here in northern Utah can increase the chances of finding them year round.","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":"Dark morph Ferruginous Hawk surveying its habitat, West Desert, Tooele County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/ferruginous-hawk-dark-morph-perched-mia-mcpherson-4370.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/ferruginous-hawk-dark-morph-perched-mia-mcpherson-4370.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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