At least I think it’s the same bird I photographed four days ago. They were in the same area, they were both young birds and they were using the same hunting technique from the same fence line.
And in this context I do mean stomping. First a brief explanation of the behavior, one I’ve seen multiple times with this species but have only rarely been able to photograph.
This hunting maneuver may not be quite as visually dramatic as the one featured in yesterday’s post but it was still a pretty neat trick.
Short-eared Owls hunt primarily on the wing, typically as they fly low over the ground in a manner reminiscent of Northern Harriers.
Raptors can be ingenious in adapting their hunting techniques and available skills to the terrain they are hunting and this juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk was a perfect example of such flexibility.
I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a wild raptor with a more obviously bulging crop than this Prairie Falcon.
Like some other buteos, depending on conditions the Rough-legged Hawk may hunt from the air using flapping/gliding flight or from an elevated perch but their tendency to hunt in flight goes up significantly with increasing wind speed. This makes sense because hovering in the wind requires less energy than flapping flight.
I’ve been photographing Northern Harriers for years now and I still get a thrill whenever I can get close to one of these shy hawks. And if it’s an elusive adult male (the “Gray Ghost”), well that’s just icing on the cake.
Several weeks ago I reported here about the alarming decline of the American Kestrel in most of North America. That decline has been apparent to me locally (Utah) as I’m seeing and photographing far fewer of them than in the past. Other more scientific and reliable sources report similar declines in many areas of the continent.
But apparently there are pockets of habitat where kestrels are still thriving and one of them is the Centennial Valley of southwest Montana.
I’ve spent many hours watching Rough-legged Hawks hunt. Nearly always they hunt from the air or from elevated perches but several years ago this bird showed me a technique I had never seen before and haven’t since. All of these images are presented in the order they were taken. Techs for these shots were: 1/2000 – 1/3200, f/8. ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in I found the hawk on the ground and as I approached it in my pickup it didn’t fly off as I expected it would. Here it’s looking at me but most of the time it was scanning the grasses in the vicinity – obviously hunting for voles from the ground. It would lift off but only fly a few feet before it landed again. In this first lift-off it had vegetation in its talons. I’ve seen them do this before – it’s almost like they’re reluctant to let go of the plant material after they’ve missed the prey. The hawk landed again… And intensely scanned the surrounding area for prey. Then another take-off… and it flew within inches of the ground… before it pounced on a vole and swallowed it. Then it continued to hunt in the same manner. Another take-off… and another. There’s blood on the right foot from the last vole. The hawk repeatedly did the same thing – take…
