Incoming Storm

Original Fine Art Photography and digital artwork by Donna Kennedy... ... more

by Donna Kennedy

Title

Incoming Storm

Artist

Donna Kennedy

Medium

Photograph - Photographs

Description

Original Fine Art Photography and digital artwork by Donna Kennedy...

Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) circling and climbing with a late November cloudy sky, Verdi, Nevada..

Two kinds of air currents hold hawks aloft. One is called a thermal. We get thermals when warm air floats above surrounding cooler air. You can actually see a thermal form on a car on a sunny day; the warmer air wiggles as it rises. The other kind of rising air mass is called an updraft, caused by wind hitting a hard surface. A good breeze that hits a mountain range or a building can't go through and can't go down into the ground, so it goes up. Hawks spread their wings wide and let the rising air carry them higher and higher without needing to flap, so they conserve energy. When the air stops rising, hawks set their wings and hold them back so their body is shaped more like an arrow. Then they cruise as far as they can without flapping, slowly but steadily losing altitude until they find another thermal or updraft. On a good day, there can be so many thermals that hawks can stay aloft with very little flapping for many miles.
These birds of prey are the most common hawks and are also known as buzzard hawks and red hawks. By any name, they are keen-eyed and efficient hunters. Red-tails prefer open areas, such as fields or deserts, with high perching. Red-tailed hawks are monogamous and may mate for life. Both sexes incubate the eggs for four to five weeks, and feed the young from the time they hatch until they leave the nest about six weeks later.

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Uploaded

January 3rd, 2017