{"id":99465,"date":"2022-01-30T05:16:25","date_gmt":"2022-01-30T12:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=99465"},"modified":"2022-01-30T05:22:42","modified_gmt":"2022-01-30T12:22:42","slug":"adult-male-rough-legged-hawk-in-early-morning-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/01\/30\/adult-male-rough-legged-hawk-in-early-morning-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Adult Male Rough-legged Hawk In Early Morning Light"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MaleMale Rough-legged Hawk in early morning light \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/250, ISO 1250, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Of all the photos I took yesterday at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/span><\/a> the one I liked the most is of this Rough-legged Hawk in early morning light.<\/p>\n

The sun had not yet risen above the Wasatch Mountains to the east when I spotted the adult male hawk perched on a sign next to the road. The thing that caught my eyes first was how much frost he had on his back and wing tips.\u00a0 I saw a low of 10\u00b0F yesterday morning so I am not surprised about the frost he had on his feathers.<\/p>\n

I was happy that the Rough-legged Hawk stuck around long enough for me to take a few photos of him even though the light was low. Rough-legged Hawks do not breed in northern Utah and I only see them during the coldest months of the year.<\/p>\n

This winter has been great for finding these arctic breeding hawks at the refuge, Farmington Bay WMA, the mountains, deserts, and valleys. On one of my trips to the refuge during the first part of January I saw six or seven Rough-legged Hawks before I even reached the auto tour route.<\/p>\n

What I like about this image is the subdued colors, the even lighting, the head turn of the hawk, the eye contact and most of all the frost. The frost shows how tough these buteos are. They are a lot tougher than me. I had to put my gloves on to photograph this bird to keep them from freezing in addition to all the layers of clothing I was wearing.<\/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":"

Of all the photos I took yesterday at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge the one I liked the most is of this Rough-legged Hawk in early morning light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":99460,"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":[124,27,1148,1087,26],"tags":[4004,2663,4275,4098,6692,1124,5672,4033,4169,2386,2670,156,4062,4104,4234,5438,153,1648,373],"class_list":["post-99465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-rough-legged-hawks","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-buteo-lagopus","tag-desert","tag-early-morning-light","tag-field","tag-flats","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-utah","tag-light-morph","tag-low-light-2","tag-male","tag-perched","tag-pre-dawn-light","tag-predawn","tag-raptors","tag-rough-legged-hawk","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/rough-legged-hawk-male-predawn-light-mia-mcpherson-4677.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-pSh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":100107,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/02\/20\/immature-rough-legged-hawk-perched-on-a-tumbleweed\/","url_meta":{"origin":99465,"position":0},"title":"Immature Rough-legged Hawk Perched On A Tumbleweed","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I was delighted to spot, point out, and photograph this immature light morph Rough-legged Hawk that was perched on a tumbleweed at Bear River MBR yesterday morning.","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":"Immature light morph Rough-legged Hawk perched on a tumbleweed, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/rough-legged-hawk-immature-tumbleweed-mia-mcpherson-4666.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/rough-legged-hawk-immature-tumbleweed-mia-mcpherson-4666.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/rough-legged-hawk-immature-tumbleweed-mia-mcpherson-4666.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/rough-legged-hawk-immature-tumbleweed-mia-mcpherson-4666.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":107524,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/10\/25\/rough-legged-hawk-season-has-begun\/","url_meta":{"origin":99465,"position":1},"title":"Rough-legged Hawk Season Has Begun","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 25, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Rough-legged Hawk season has begun in northern Utah. I spotted my first of season Rough-legged Hawks on the wing last Friday.","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":"Male light morph Rough-legged Hawk on a February morning, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-adult-male-info-sign-mia-mcpherson-9795.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/rough-legged-hawk-adult-male-info-sign-mia-mcpherson-9795.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult male Rough-legged Hawk perched in a Russian Olive tree, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/rough-legged-hawk-adult-male-light-morph-mia-mcpherson-4908.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/rough-legged-hawk-adult-male-light-morph-mia-mcpherson-4908.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/rough-legged-hawk-adult-male-light-morph-mia-mcpherson-4908.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/rough-legged-hawk-adult-male-parking-sign-mia-mcpherson-9693.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/rough-legged-hawk-adult-male-parking-sign-mia-mcpherson-9693.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/rough-legged-hawk-adult-male-parking-sign-mia-mcpherson-9693.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/rough-legged-hawk-adult-male-parking-sign-mia-mcpherson-9693.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":99683,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/02\/05\/light-morph-male-rough-legged-hawk-winter-site-fidelity\/","url_meta":{"origin":99465,"position":4},"title":"Light Morph Male Rough-legged Hawk Winter Site Fidelity","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 5, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I have been photographing a light morph male Rough-legged Hawk on or near a One Way sign at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge frequently this winter.","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":"Rough-legged Hawk adult male with dark clouds in the background, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, 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Roughie","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 6, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday I heard a male Rough-legged Hawk calling which is highly unusual away from their breeding grounds in the Arctic tundra and taiga of the far north.","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 Rough-legged Hawk male calling, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/rough-legged-hawk-calling-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-8162.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/rough-legged-hawk-calling-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-8162.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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