Hawks too close!

Typically, raptor photographers spend all day out in the field trying to get nice shots of hawks but the darn things just won’t come close enough. This happens to me all the time, especially at hawk watching sites, where you think, “Hey, this bird is comin’ in real close, this is gonna be a great shot!” and then you get home and check out your photos from the day and still….the bird was just too far away and the photo isn’t really that great. Well here in Idaho, I have been spoiled with going out to get photos of raptors and having the opposite problem; the hawks are SO CLOSE that I cant even get the entire hawk in my camera frame! Below are two examples of hawks that were just so darn close! Both of these birds I encountered while out doing Long-billed Curlew surveys and they flew over a hill and were right over top of me before they even realized I was there.

Swainson's Hawk - light type adult (photo by Alex Lamoreaux)

Red-tailed Hawk - Western adult light type (photo by Alex Lamoreaux)