{"id":99774,"date":"2022-02-10T05:15:39","date_gmt":"2022-02-10T12:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=99774"},"modified":"2022-02-10T05:20:55","modified_gmt":"2022-02-10T12:20:55","slug":"yawning-immature-rough-legged-hawk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/02\/10\/yawning-immature-rough-legged-hawk\/","title":{"rendered":"Yawning Immature Rough-legged Hawk"},"content":{"rendered":"

With and without the nictitating membrane showing.<\/p>\n

\"YawningYawning immature light morph Rough-legged Hawk with nictitating membrane showing \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the same immature light morph Rough-legged Hawk that I shared portraits of two days ago<\/span><\/a> that were taken at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/span><\/a>. These images were taken before I got close enough to take my portraits of this young bird of prey. I like these photos because they showed the Rough-legged Hawk yawning and in this first photo how it showed the nictitating membrane completely covering the eye of the immature hawk.<\/p>\n

\"YawningYawning immature light morph Rough-legged Hawk with nictitating membrane inset \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

I decided that I should do an inset of the nictitating membrane covering the eye of the Rough-legged Hawk so it could been seen a bit larger than the first photo I shared above. This image also shows the inside of the bill of the hawk nicely.<\/p>\n

The nictitating membrane clears debris, moisturizes and protects the eyes of birds from external damage. I have seen the nictitating membrane of yawning birds many times.<\/p>\n

In the inset I can just make out the pupil of this hawk’s eye.<\/p>\n

\"YawningYawning immature light morph Rough-legged Hawk \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

The next frame in the series of images I took does not show the nictitating membrane at all. There was only the one image where it appeared.<\/p>\n

It is almost the middle of February and that has me thinking that I need to get as many Rough-legged Hawks photos as I can because in just a few weeks these arctic breeding hawks will so be on the wing to their breeding grounds.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

This is the same immature light morph Rough-legged Hawk that I shared portraits of two days ago that were taken at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":99777,"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":[4007,4008,4275,2497,4033,4169,4067,2670,12734,4094,4104,12733,153,1648,2239,9461,30,4095,373,5822,340,4193],"class_list":["post-99774","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-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","tag-box-elder-county","tag-buteo-lagopus","tag-buteos","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-immature","tag-light-morph","tag-marker","tag-marsh","tag-perched","tag-plastic-post","tag-raptors","tag-rough-legged-hawk","tag-sub-adult","tag-subadult","tag-utah-2","tag-wetlands","tag-winter","tag-yawn","tag-yawning","tag-young"],"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