Bird tails. . . .and tales!

 

Nothing visible through the windows these early mornings. Condensation on the outside where the humidity is so high, and the glass so cold on the inside due to the A/C pumping out . . . . . Bob likes it really chilly indoors, me not so much.

Later in the day our newest winged visitor to the garden is very visible and

 not welcome!

This is a juvenile Red-tailed hawk, extremely common just about everywhere,  circling overhead, sitting on telephone poles and fence posts, hanging about in the tall oaks ready to grab a rodent, especially a squirrel. Sadly, they also take rabbits, and I've not seen my baby bunny for a couple of days!

Here you see it looking up into the fig tree - later it was staring me down from a branch of the fig tree, seemingly oblivious that I was a human and just a couple of feet away with a camera in hand. I'm not sure who was the most surprised at that close encounter!

It's also flying onto our roof a lot - here you can see it's a youngster as it has yet to develop red tail feathers, and the breast is still speckled all over. Although this raptor does not take a lot of birds according to what I read, we did see it swoop down under our feeder and fly off with a small one busily nibbling on the ground, probably a finch. Yes, I know that's nature but I was angry, very angry!

Sunday Morning Raptor Visit!

Bob yelled, "Quick, a hawk in the tree."

I rushed to the window, saw who he was talking about, though almost 

hidden behind the dead leaves.

Asked him to grab my camera while I gently pulled up the blinds!

Dive-bombing small, very fast, noisy birds were hitting the young

 Red-tailed hawk's head, but it stayed just long enough for me to get a

 few photos then apparently said to itself, enough of this malarkey, 

I'm off to greener pastures.

I always enjoy unexpected garden visitors!

Birding in the backyard………………

I took a break from all the indoor busyness, such as packing, this lovely morning, and sat in my wicker garden chair looking UP!  I looked up for so long I thought my chin would never come down again.  My neck was quite painful for a while. I even sent Bob for a can of OFF to spray for the mosquitoes making a meal of my bare ankles and elbows.

What we do to get photos of our garden birds, it's almost ridiculous.

Several blue jays were making such a commotion in the neighbor's oak tree I just knew something was up. Looking in that direction it wasn't difficult to spot this beautiful red-tailed hawk, probably a juvenile as it had a speckled chest. These birds grow to 25" and can have a wingspan up to 4 feet.

Click to enlarge

The jays dive-bombed at the hawk over and over, bumping its head and shoulders. 

Jays, highly intelligent birds, are known as the alarm of the forest screaming at any 

woodland intruders 

The hawk wouldn't fly off, just moved to another nearby branch………

………and was then also cawed at several times by two crows swooping down.

We then noticed a dead squirrel on the neighbor's chimney - brought by the hawk 

and dropped there most likely.

This hawk stayed in the tree about an hour……then it flew away, picking up his takeaway lunch from the chimney, all just a few minutes after I gave up waiting for that shot and went back in the house - of course!

Always happens when photographing wildlife, doesn't it?

Blue jay and red-tailed hawk on a beautiful May morning.