Ferruginous hawk

The Ferruginous hawk is the largest North American hawk and is closely related to the Rough-legged hawk. They have feathered tarsus that can be seen real well on Arash's last post of this handsome juvenile. For their size they have remarkably small feet. Even though bigger than our Red-tailed Hawk, they prefer smaller prey like voles and gophers compared to the squirrels and rabbits that the Red-tails like. I find these guys usually on low perches or standing in an open plowed field.
This young male was very cooperative and stayed in a localized area for almost a month. He had a cool hunting behavior. At first I thought he was making attempts at insects as he swooped down low and strafed the dirt and grass with dirt flying behind him as he flew off. After watching him do this dozens of times, and coming up without an insect, I realized that he wasn't hunting insects. He was watching the very subtle movements of the ground that the gophers or voles were moving and then smashing into that location in hopes of coming up with a meal. I never saw him score but I'm sure it worked. This frame was taken as he saw something under the dirt and was headed for it.


1DX---840mm---f6.3---ss1/4000th---ISO800---HH from truck@7:20am---30% crop

Thanks as always for looking and for your input. I appreciate it.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to All!!

David

David:

Great story to go along with a very fine image. Excellent full down pose, no merge of the head, nice shadow. I sliver tight in the frame for a BIF for my taste. There is a dust bunny on the far right side near frames edge.

Great angle in frame too.

I guess they really do have a Hawk eye, if they can see the subtle changes in the dirt while flying.

Cheers

Randy

A great flight shot of a great raptor. Love the wing position and the eye contact. I'm a bit thrown off by the almost turquoise sky color. I wonder if a slight desaturation, or taking the green channel down a pop or two, might help?

Thanks Guys.

Randy I will repost wit a bit looser comp. I posted this one tight because it was pretty sharp and I wanted to concentrate on the feather details. Thanks, I didn't even notice the dust bunny.


Bill, I do see what you mean by the sky color. I will look at it and repost.


Thanks again.

Here is the repost addressing the items mentioned above. Looser comp, sky color and dust bunny.

Thanks for the help.

David:

I had the same impression of the sky color as Bill, glad he mentioned it. The sky is better in the repost, but now the bird has a color cast to my eye. Such a great shot, needs a little more love :S3:

The white balance was close, but the tint needed to be adjusted to +34 in lightroom for my taste. I also lightened the shadows a sliver.

Randy

I like it Randy. I globally increased the saturation and the tint but didn't change the white balance. Looks better. Thanks

David, great shot of this hawk. I love the 3-D feel of the wings. Randy's RP is right on the money I think. TFS. Loi

excellent take off pose with sharp details, Randy's repost took care of the color cast

Really nice image, great sharpness and eye contact. Randy´s repost is more appealing to my eye I guess.

Like the repost. Great shot Dave a think I have the same frame. Congrats on another image of the week. Looking forward to our Duck search.

Glenn

All been said above. Great looking image David, thanks for sharing this. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Bonnie Scotland :cheers:

All the best David
Great shot.
JohnR

Thanks for the comments everyone. Have a great holiday.

Great shot, and even better now the colours have been fixed

Beautiful image David.

Hi David.I like the wing position and the eye contact.TFS

Thanks again everyone.