Evening hawk in Autumn
Sitting here with several inches of snow on the ground it feels like autumn has passed by now. I hope it comes back but I found a few photos of this hawk.
I think it is a red-tailed hawk but it could be a Swainson’s. Either way it was beautiful and I enjoyed watching it on the fence-post for a couple of minutes before it took flight.
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Hawk flight
A hawk launches out over the prairies. Photographed in late August last summer.
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A harvest hawk
As farmers harvest their crops, hawks enjoy using the hay bales to scout for field mice. This rough-legged hawk stared at me from her perch for a moment before returning her attention to the field.
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A screaming hawk in Springbank
This Red-tailed hawk is often perched on one of the telephone poles which line a gravel road along Highway 8, west of Calgary. This morning I turned off to see if I could find her. I did and she wasn’t overly pleased to see me. As soon as I stopped near her pole-top perch, she took flight. I felt like I stole this one before she flew further down the road. I was happy with this image and didn’t want to harass her further so I left her alone.
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Prairie Wildlife: Red-tailed Hawks
With spring having taken control, the hawks have returned in earnest to the prairie and the foothills around Bragg Creek. During my hikes and drives, I often cross their path. When they wait long enough for me to pull up my camera, I really enjoy photographing them in flight. I’ve had a couple nice flight series so far and wanted to share a few ahead of a larger raptor project I’m working towards completing in the fall.
When the sun is low in the sky, the warm light can beautifully illuminate the stretched out primary feathers (the fingers), the splayed out tail feathers (particularly true with the Red-tailed hawks) and the patterns in the covert feathers (the layers covering the wing at the base of the primaries). With the sun behind, the backlit feathers can glow in a striking fashion which I find very appealing.
Christopher Martin Photography 