{"id":96821,"date":"2021-10-31T06:01:38","date_gmt":"2021-10-31T12:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=96821"},"modified":"2021-10-31T15:10:28","modified_gmt":"2021-10-31T21:10:28","slug":"happy-halloween-from-the-headless-hawk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/10\/31\/happy-halloween-from-the-headless-hawk\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Halloween From The Headless Hawk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-96818 size-full\" title=\"Happy Halloween from the Headless Hawk\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-halloween-headless-mia-mcpherson-4781.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-halloween-headless-mia-mcpherson-4781.jpg\" alt=\"Happy Halloween from the Headless Hawk, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27600%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20900%20600%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27600%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-halloween-headless-mia-mcpherson-4781-200x133.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-halloween-headless-mia-mcpherson-4781-250x167.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-halloween-headless-mia-mcpherson-4781-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-halloween-headless-mia-mcpherson-4781-400x267.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-halloween-headless-mia-mcpherson-4781-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-halloween-headless-mia-mcpherson-4781-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-halloween-headless-mia-mcpherson-4781-800x533.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-halloween-headless-mia-mcpherson-4781.jpg 900w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Happy Halloween from the Headless Hawk &#8211; Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/640, ISO 320, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light, not baited<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">H<\/span><span style=\"color: #333333;\">appy<\/span><\/strong> <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>H<span style=\"color: #333333;\">alloween<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Our eyes can play tricks on us and that is what happened with this &#8220;headless&#8221; Red-tailed Hawk that I photographed last October at Farmington Bay WMA. The Red-tailed Hawk isn&#8217;t headless at all. The head of the hawk is simply hidden from our view because the young hawk was preening feathers on its back. When I took this photo I knew it might make for an interesting Halloween greeting.<\/p>\n<p>I was going to share this image last year on Halloween but then I found a Common Loon in an uncommon location on October 30th and shared photos of that loon on Halloween instead. The loon was a real treat as it floated and foraged on the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bear_River_(Great_Salt_Lake)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Bear River<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Headless Horseman is a mythical figure who has appeared in folklore since the middle ages as well a fictional character from the 1820 short story &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Legend_of_Sleepy_Hollow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>The Legend of Sleepy Hollow<\/em><\/span><\/a>&#8221; by American author Washington Irving. The Headless Horseman is also a popular costume worn by many on <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Halloween\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Halloween<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This Headless Hawk is not a mythical creature and is simply an optical illusion that I was able to photograph on a bright, chilly October morning. Is it is trick, a treat, or both?<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll leave that up to you! Have a safe and happy Halloween.<\/p>\n<p>Life<em> is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/red-tailed-hawk-images\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Red-tailed Hawk photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our eyes can play tricks on us and that is what happened with this &#8220;headless&#8221; Red-tailed Hawk that I photographed last October at Farmington Bay WMA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96818,"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":[27,1022,697,449,26],"tags":[970,2663,6577,4170,2497,4033,4169,2386,12524,12525,4067,6583,12526,4104,4019,153,4209,12523,4193],"class_list":["post-96821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-red-tailed-hawks","category-utah","tag-autumn","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-branches","tag-buteo-jamaicensis","tag-buteos","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-utah","tag-headless","tag-headless-horseman","tag-immature","tag-leaves","tag-mythical-figure","tag-perched","tag-preening-2","tag-raptors","tag-red-tailed-hawk","tag-three","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-halloween-headless-mia-mcpherson-4781.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-pbD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":108353,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/11\/28\/immature-red-tailed-hawk-head-on-stare\/","url_meta":{"origin":96821,"position":0},"title":"Immature Red-tailed Hawk Head On Stare","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 28, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"If I were a vole, I'd tremble in fear under the head on stare of this immature Red-tailed Hawk that I photographed last week at Farmington Bay WMA.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature Red-tailed Hawk head on stare, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-mia-mcpherson-4805.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-mia-mcpherson-4805.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Red-tailed Hawk, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-safety-zone-mia-mcpherson-0191.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-safety-zone-mia-mcpherson-0191.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-safety-zone-mia-mcpherson-0191.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-safety-zone-mia-mcpherson-0191.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":107272,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/10\/15\/immature-red-tailed-hawk-with-mountains-in-the-background\/","url_meta":{"origin":96821,"position":2},"title":"Immature Red-tailed Hawk With Mountains In The Background","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 15, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"My best bird photos from yesterday morning at Farmington Bay WMA were of an immature Red-tailed Hawk with the shadowed Wasatch Mountain slopes in the background.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature Red-tailed Hawk on a nest box in early morning light, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-nestbox-mia-mcpherson-0726.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-nestbox-mia-mcpherson-0726.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-nestbox-mia-mcpherson-0726.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-nestbox-mia-mcpherson-0726.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":117217,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/10\/19\/red-tailed-hawk-in-front-of-the-wasatch-mountains\/","url_meta":{"origin":96821,"position":3},"title":"Red-tailed Hawk In Front Of The Wasatch Mountains","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 19, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I took a few long distance photos of this Red-tailed Hawk at Farmington Bay WMA because of the fall colors in the Wasatch Mountains in the background.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Red-tailed Hawk in front of the Wasatch Mountains, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-adult-fall-mountains-mia-mcpherson-3657.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-adult-fall-mountains-mia-mcpherson-3657.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-adult-fall-mountains-mia-mcpherson-3657.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-adult-fall-mountains-mia-mcpherson-3657.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":107504,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/10\/24\/immature-red-tailed-hawk-with-tude\/","url_meta":{"origin":96821,"position":4},"title":"Immature Red-tailed Hawk With &#8216;Tude","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 24, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"While I was up in far northern Utah last week, the first bird I photographed was this immature Red-tailed Hawk that seemed to have a surly attitude about it.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Surly looking immature Red-tailed Hawk, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-desert-mia-mcpherson-1421.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-desert-mia-mcpherson-1421.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-desert-mia-mcpherson-1421.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/red-tailed-hawk-immature-desert-mia-mcpherson-1421.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":44360,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/01\/13\/photographing-a-red-tailed-hawk-at-farmington-bay\/","url_meta":{"origin":96821,"position":5},"title":"Photographing a Red-tailed Hawk at Farmington Bay","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Almost three years ago today I spent time photographing a Red-tailed Hawk at Farmington Bay that was hunting in a snowy field while using a nest box as a perch to watch for prey.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Red-tailed Hawk yawning on a nest box, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/red-tailed-hawk-yawning-nest-box-mia-mcpherson-4806.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/red-tailed-hawk-yawning-nest-box-mia-mcpherson-4806.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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