The foggy morning didn’t affect this immature Red-shouldered Hawk’s ability to spot and catch a rodent in the woods at the Ridgefield NWR, Dec. 14, 2014. The fog, however, did affect the quality of the shot I was able to get after it had finished feeding and jumping up on a nice mossy perch for me. I was close enough that the bird filled the frame, which helped a lot in getting the image to the state it is presented here. Using ISO 1600 introduced some noise which is most evident under the chin. I chose to leave some noise there as a trade off for not having the chin feathers all look completely like mush.
If this had been the much more common Red-tailed Hawk, it would be in the recycle bin, but it’s been a while since I’ve captured an RSH so I decided to attempt a save on this frame.
Canon 7D Mark II, 1/800, f4, ISO 1600, 500mm, 8:27 a.m. (low light and fog)
