Red-shouldered Hawk Shines on Sign!

A relaxing walk in the park can produce some nice surprises and excitement, especially when I have my camera and am looking for birds to photograph. 

Such was the case last weekend during a stroll around the old Kings Grant Golf Course.

From a distance, I spotted a large bird perched on a Do Not Enter sign. I quickly surmised it to be a Hawk, a red-shouldered one. 

I took some pictures from behind like the one above, then slowly moved in the shade of a tree to see the bird’s face. I’m sure it saw me. These raptors don’t miss much I am sure.

The Hawk proved a good model! It let me take all the photos I wanted and didn’t fly away until I walked away. 

We saw a second Red-shouldered fly to a nearby tree. I wasn’t able to photograph that one but am very pleased with the ones I took of this beauty. 

Red-shouldered Hawk Montage

I was out on my driveway doing some repair work last week and what did I see? A flash of feathers that landed on my neighbor’s house across the street. The work could wait as I retrieved by camera and monopod. This is a Red-shouldered Hawk as evident by the small patch of red on the wing close to its neck and head. 

This is not the order I took the photographs but once I achieved some closeups and the hawk was still there, I did a sequence of wide to tight shots just for fun. 

Neighborhood Hawk Encounter

 

More Owls (and a Hawk) Oh My!

 

The morning wasn’t starting well. A certain cat of ours who will go nameless used the small rug in the kitchen for his business best done upstairs in the litter box. So I took the rug out to the front porch and was spraying it with the hose when I heard that distinctive hissing sound. Distinctive because in recent days and nights i have seen and heard Barred Owls making this noise. 

So I look up and what’s looking at me but a Barred Owl up in a tree not far from where I was spraying the rug! 

So I go inside and grab my camera. I’m getting some nice photos of the owl when a second one arrives at the scene. In the below photo you can see the pair. 

Hawk Backyard Feeding Feast!

Back in March, I took these photos from my backyard. The poor Muscovy duck, I think, had been sick and that made it easy pickings for predators such as this Red-shouldered Hawk. I had seen the duck laying in this spot a day or two earlier and didn’t think that much about it.