Sunday, November 17, 2013

Red Hawk Down

Not that far into our morning’s hike something crashed through a tree and in a flurry of wings and feathers landed on the ground near Duffy and me. It was (perhaps) a Red Tailed Hawk, probably a fledgling that was just learning to fly. Since it was right next to us it probably figured that there was no point in trying to fly away since that hadn’t worked all that well for him thus far.

You can see these photos at http://lawrencehelm.smugmug.com/ in “The Newish Old E-1” gallery, photos 244 to 255. When the hawk crashed to the ground Duffy ran toward it but soon changed his mind about getting too close. Photos 244, 245, and 246 show him warily walking around the hawk. After that (since I was using an 18-180mm lens) I decided to get some closeups. In photo 255 I noticed the Hawk looking menacingly at something. I took the camera from my eye and noticed that Duffy had decided to approach the hawk more closely and the hawk’s menacing stare said “better not.”

I called Duffy away. “Time to go. Let’s leave the hawk alone.”

A bit later I saw a Red Tailed Hawk in a tree, photos 256, 257 and 258. The Hawk was unfortunately on the other side of some branches so I couldn't see it very well, and a few seconds after 258 it flew off. I doubt that it was the same hawk that we encountered on the ground. In photo 252 you can see banding on the hawks tail that is an indication (according to what I read) that it is young, but I already guessed that.

No comments: