{"id":1589,"date":"2019-03-20T15:08:17","date_gmt":"2019-03-20T20:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westerman.photo\/?p=1589"},"modified":"2026-06-04T15:59:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T20:59:26","slug":"shes-warming-up-to-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westerman.photo\/index.php\/2019\/03\/20\/shes-warming-up-to-me\/","title":{"rendered":"She&#8217;s warming up to me."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We&#8217;ve been together on warm summer days and in freezing, wind driven rain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At first, I could only hear her calls. That was when she was young and being trained by her parents who are long since gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the last couple of years she has let me walk close to her. This is her territory. I see her all the time as she hunts for small furry creatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today I went saw her through a window on this pole close to the house. That alone is unusual. I took pictures through the double-paned glass which makes things blurry at best when you shoot from any distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I decided to walk outside and maybe get a few photos before she flew away like she normally would. I did get a few but something unusual happened. She stayed on the pole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So I walked closer. Took a few photos. Closer. Took a few more. Then I noticed she really didn&#8217;t care about me being there. Clearly watching me but not caring that I was getting so close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I kept walking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is not a small lens. It&#8217;s 600mm and designed for shooting subjects at a considerable distance. When I got to 40 feet I stopped walking towards her and took this photo:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/westerman.photo\/wp-content\/uploads\/JWW_4839-Edit-2_edit-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1590\" srcset=\"https:\/\/westerman.photo\/wp-content\/uploads\/JWW_4839-Edit-2_edit-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/westerman.photo\/wp-content\/uploads\/JWW_4839-Edit-2_edit-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/westerman.photo\/wp-content\/uploads\/JWW_4839-Edit-2_edit-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/westerman.photo\/wp-content\/uploads\/JWW_4839-Edit-2_edit-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/westerman.photo\/wp-content\/uploads\/JWW_4839-Edit-2_edit-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>Red Shouldered Hawk on a 4&#215;4 post.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At this point I can&#8217;t zoom back out much. It&#8217;s just she and I looking at each other. She is still not showing any sign of leaving. I can see per pupils in the middle of her brown eyes now. She is very orange. Her feathers are blowing in the wind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I stopped taking photos and just watch her look for things. The smaller birds were watching her closely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There was a small concentration of animals watching this hunter. I suspect it was so they did not become prey.  I estimate her height at 14-15 inches tall and about 8 inches at her shoulders. She is not small.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Soon she decided to move on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/westerman.photo\/wp-content\/uploads\/JWW_4847-Edit_edit-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1591\" srcset=\"https:\/\/westerman.photo\/wp-content\/uploads\/JWW_4847-Edit_edit-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/westerman.photo\/wp-content\/uploads\/JWW_4847-Edit_edit-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/westerman.photo\/wp-content\/uploads\/JWW_4847-Edit_edit-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/westerman.photo\/wp-content\/uploads\/JWW_4847-Edit_edit-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/westerman.photo\/wp-content\/uploads\/JWW_4847-Edit_edit-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>Takeoff into the wind.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And I went back to work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;ve been together on warm summer days and in freezing, wind driven rain. At first, I could only hear her calls. That\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,16,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home","category-photography","category-public"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westerman.photo\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westerman.photo\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westerman.photo\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westerman.photo\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westerman.photo\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/westerman.photo\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1592,"href":"https:\/\/westerman.photo\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1589\/revisions\/1592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westerman.photo\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westerman.photo\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westerman.photo\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}