Usually I just hear them, and see them riding the thermals above the valley. But recently, they have been hanging around much closer to the houses. In February my son looked out the kitchen window and casually asked "What's that bird?". I was in the other room and asked "What does it look like?" His response was "A Turkey", but I was thinking he probably would have just said "Turkey!" to begin with if that is what it was. I came in and looked, half expecting a Turkey, and was shocked to see a Red-Shouldered Hawk flapping it's wings to keep it's balance on the ground on the steep hillside. It looked like it had landed trying to catch something on the ground. We only got a chance to snap this one picture with my phone before it flew off. Just think of it as my version of a homage to Monet.
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| Impressionism Red Shouldered Hawk |
Luckily, this bird or it's mate returned this morning. It perched on the branches of a recently deceased tree, and worked on prying off small branches for about 10 minutes. I imagine it is working on a nest nearby.
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| Red-Shouldered Hawk Pulling on branch
I was thrilled to get a chance to watch the bird work on this project, and get a few more photos. My son got to see it also.
And in hindsight, it kind of does look like a Turkey. Special for JDS, here is an actual Turkey photo taken a couple of weeks ago, as follow up to the comments from an earlier post.  |
Nice pics of the red-shouldered hawk!
ReplyDeleteThey are pretty rare here in the upper Midwest, but when I lived in NC, they were probably the raptor that I most commonly saw.
Strange how that works....
Which species do you most commonly where you are now?
DeleteAwesome. Just this morning, my co-teacher and I were admiring the nesting pair of red-shoulders (that have returned to the creek by our school) tear off fresh branches for their nest.
ReplyDeleteSomething about having them around and hearing their calls during the walk inside the building that just lifts the spirits in the morning.
Very cool that you just saw the same thing! Is that the nest the owl's used last year?
DeleteNew nest, up the path, closer to the street.
DeleteThe owl nest used to be a red-shouldered nest before last year. The owls have been spotted in it once this year, but we are pretty sure they are gone.