Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Red-tailed Hawk

I had stopped my car by the side of the road to take a picture of this interesting shaped cloud. I then noticed, at the bottom right of the cloud, a large bird on a branch of the tallest tree; and I thought to myself, .."that's not a crow!" Quicky switching cameras for the one with a telescopic lens; and getting out of the car to stand on the shoulder of the highway, I saw that it was a hawk. I knew that a hawk was around in the area for I had seen it a couple of times previously, but I hadn't been sure if it was a Red-tailed or maybe a Northern Rough-legged.
It was a Red-tailed for sure! How beautiful it was in flight. I shall have to find it again and at a closer range to try to get some sharper photos. The distance between the hawk and myself remained the same and I was only able to reproduce these closeups through photo editing.

You may see more photos of the Red-tailed Hawk by clicking on the video below.

Above, from my photo archives, a Red-tailed Hawk displaying its tail while standing on a power line.

4 comments:

Mary said...

Wow! That's a great telephoto lens! The hawk shots are great...so graceful looking.

me ann my camera said...

Mary:
I thought I had seen a glimpse of red but it wasn't until the photos were downloaded that I really saw the beauty of its colourful tail! Sometimes, when a bird is flying at a distance, you just aim and shoot and hope you've got something good.

Mary said...

You do a very good job of zeroing in on the far shot for the details. It is a beautiful hawk and the red tail certainly stands out. I like the side shot of his head with the curved beak tip.

Sandpiper (Lin) said...

Beautiful, beautiful! It's amazing how big birds like this can be so graceful. In certain light, their tail feathers glow with that beautiful russet color and there is no mistaking them.