Week 50 – Rough-legged Hawk

 

Adult Male Rough-legged Hawk. Photograph by Neil Paprocki.

What’s even better than photographing your first Rough-legged Hawk? How about trapping one and getting to see it up-close-and-personal!

I made an unofficial rule at the beginning of this 52-week project that I wouldn’t use the same species two weeks in a row. Well we can throw that one out the window in favor of getting close encounters with my favorite bird species two weeks in a row. Totally over it.

I was lucky enough to trap this adult male Rough-legged Hawk near Grand View, Idaho on Sunday. Definitely the coolest bird I have ever had in the hand. The whole experience felt a little surreal, especially knowing that this bird had just spent the summer breeding in the Alaskan or Canadian Arctic, and now I was holding it right here in Idaho!

Hope to catch more of these guys when I return to Boise in the beginning of January. Maybe an adult female next time!

All of the previous 52-week blog photos can be found at the Wild Lens blog or on Flickr.