{"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_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_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":[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":[],"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