Talk about excitement! Earlier today I caught a glimpse of the underside of wings, really BIG wings, going by and up over the top of our house. They looked white and the wingspread so big that I thought it must be an owl. But it is noon – why would an owl be out now?
About an hour later, a big SWOOP down just outside our property line in the open alleyway in the back. I couldn’t believe my eyes, as I scurried for my camera, which is always close at hand.
I snapped a couple of shots through the kitchen window, and then carefully opened the door to the deck, secured it from banging in the wind, and slithered out onto the deck to try for some better shots.
He was a bigger bird than I have ever seen around here – not quite as big as a turkey, but really big! I think it must be some kind of a hawk. Perhaps someone can point me in the right direction. I have all of the Audubon apps on the iPad, so maybe I can find him.
I couldn’t tell if he knew I was there or not, but he was hopping all around – not a cooperative subject at all. The posted picture was the last one I was able to get, and while it was writing to the card (a split second!), he vanished. When I looked up, there was no sign of him anywhere – not even up in the sky.
Must keep an especially close eye out there today. Maybe he will make another appearance. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
Handsome for sure. I have some kind of smaller hawk or falcon that comes to my bird feeders everyday. He takes a bird then leaves.
Well, it is a “bird feeder”, yes?
Looks like a red tail to me.
Craig Sheumaker 916-601-5007
I feel so dumb. Apparently that is the most common hawk in the country, but it was so exciting to me to see him up so close.
Hi Judi…just checked with our ranger here at Aransas NWR in Texas. He says this is a Red-Tailed Hawk…
Thanks for the confirmation, Donna. It is so fun to put up that picture and able to share the thrill with so many friends. ;->
He is a beauty. It looks kind of like the Red-Tailed Hawk in the Peterson’s Guide. We have Harris’s Hawks here, and they are dark brown with a white band at the tip of the tail.
We have had a stormy day today, but I wish he would have stayed around for a while. I guess he needed to find a good place to ride out the wind.
A reader sent these three sites for me to look at. They are really great. Thank you, Holly.
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/browse_tax/77/
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/red-tailed_hawk/sounds
He’s beautiful. I took a photo of a hawk yesterday, but it was a Cooper’s Hawk, much smaller than yours. I’d love to see a Red Tailed Hawk. And I think he should have a fancier name than that, don’t you? But I guess he does have a red under-tail, and many of the birds I look up have common names that match something about their appearance. The Red Tailed Hawk has such fancy pantaloons. 🙂
LOL! I was struck by those “pantaloons”, too. The wind was blowing quite hard, and his pantaloon feathers were blowing like crazy!
that hawk could be hungry looking for a prey nearby. careful.
I’ll protect small children!
What a beautiful bird! Great shot
Thanks, Andrea! I’d never seen one up so close before – not even in an aviary – so was terribly thrilled. Do you see many up there?
Actually we see them every once in a while in our neighborhood. Have one now that we’re keeping an eye pn because we have six dogs, two are little guys (maltese and dachshund). So we’re on hawk alert… 🙂 One day we had it raining feathers.. So we don’t know what happened on the air.. They are such powerful beautiful birds though.
I’ve heard of small dogs disappearing into the air, but never actually have witnessed it!
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