Birds and Nature

I found this most leucistic Red-tailed Hawk today  in south Texas.  It was striking but the backlighting does not do it justice in these pics.  I was surprised that it wasn't as shy as many of this species and let me stop along the highway to take pics (I did stay in my car both as my habit to reduce disturbance on the bird plus the danger of parking along a two lane highway).  SeEtta

It has been awhile since I have seen a Red-tailed Hawk that was not the usual light morph seen in this area. Today I spotted this Rufous morph (Western) Red-tailed Hawk perched off the road in a difficult to see location. Had to turn around and go back to refind and photograph it. Not easily seen is the whitish (could be light gray) underside of it's tail. Though I was a good hundred feet away and stayed in my car, the hawk likely heard the sounds of my camera and flushed. As it flew off I could see the reddish coloration of the uppertail feathers. SeEtta

In addition to the Prairie Falcon I saw a about 6 Red-tailed Hawks around the Wet Mountain Valley this afternoon including this pretty rufous morph. SeEtta

This Red-tailed Hawk has her nest in a cave about a hundred feet up a steep hill and on a cliff. She has two young nestlings seen in these pics. As can be seen in the second pic (photo before I crop it tightly to enlarge it) the nest is very large. This nest has been used intermittently over the past 7 or 8 years and new nesting material just gets added to what is left from previous nestings. My camera and lens combo I used for these pics provide the equivalent of about 900 mm or 16x's the view with our eyes so even before I crop the photos they are very enlarged. This allows me to take photos with less disturbance to birds especially important for nesting birds. SeEtta

I spotted this strange assortment of birds in a prairie-dog town in Otero County. The Red-tailed Hawk had nailed a prairie-dog and was clutching it in it's foot while Black-billed Magpies and a Turkey Vulture brazenly crowded the pressured hawk. When the hawk flew a short distance it was followed by the magpies and another vulture that had been circling. Given the terrible drought that has plagued this area all summer it would seem that scavengers like these magpies and vultures are emboldened. SeEtta

I believe this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk is a dark intermediate morph. I also found it in southern Pueblo County. SeEtta

I found this Red-tailed Hawk near the small town of Ordway, CO. Though it appears to be a Western ( caluru ) subspecies it has some features found in Harlan's ( harlani including a light supercilium and whitish color below and right behind the eye. It is necessary to enlarge this photo by clicking on it to see these details. It's tail also looks more like one found on Harlan's hawks. SeEtta

I have followed this female Red-tailed Hawk for several breeding seasons in an area near Canon City, CO. The first year I observed her nesting, she choose a very precarious small ledge on a steep cliff--but it held and her young fledged successfully. The next year she nested in a less precarious location by some large boulders. Sadly I saw one of her fledglings wedged, and apparently dead, head first in a vertical opening in a nearby cliff area--maybe a wind gust caused it to dive head first into the opening where it was unable to get free, very sad. This year she choose this nice size ledge on another cliff which has a cave behind it. This is very convenient as both she and her young have been able to retreat into the cave to avoid the hot afternoon sun. She built at least a good section of nest on the ledge as much nest material can be seen outside the cave part and she tends to perch on the nesting material on the ledge most of the times I have seen her and only occasionally re...

Finally it shook itself to get some of the water off and it kind of hopped a little further onto the bank from the ice. The 3rd pic shows the hawk as it just perched on the bank for a few more minutes. Finally the hawk hopped, with an assist from flapping wings, into the shrubs where I suppose it felt safer. Why this hawk landed in the pond is unknown. Was it chasing some prey that was able to maneuver up from the water? Was it going after, in some desperate attempt to eat, a small duck in the water? Was there some visual problem (with its eyes, glare from the water) that caused it to undershoot a landing on the ice? I wasn't the only vertebrate interested in what was happening with this hawk as several small ducks swam directly over to it right after it hit the water. They swam away then returned near it when it got up on the ice--like they were also trying to figure out this unusual event. If there was some way I could get to it I would have as I knew it's chances for...

When I stopped to look to see if either of Trumpeter Swans was still around, I caught a glimpse (looking with my binoculars through my windshield as it was around 10 degrees F) of what looked like a hawk flying down into the pond. I jumped out of my car and put my binoculars on something in the water but couldn't quite tell what it was. Since I didn't have my spotting scope with me (I think this is the only time in the past year I left it at home, wouldn't you know), I took a few pics with my digital camera with long lens. What I saw was in the top pic--a hawk floating in the water!! Wow, it just floated like that for several minutes (maybe stunned since it seemed to go down fast?). Then it made a heroic effort and got itself up on the nearby ice as shown in the 2nd pic. It just perched there for a few more minutes,with underparts soaked from the freezing cold water. The pics show snow on the bank and on the shrubs behind the hawk. At this point it was clear that thi...

I saw this pretty Red-tailed Hawk in the vicinity of Lake Henry, Colorado. A member of the Western subspecies of Red-tailed Hawks called calurus , with it's intermediate plumage it is sometimes referred to as a Rufous morph. SeEtta

This Red-tailed Hawk was soaked from a thunderstorm on the short grass prairie in Otero Co of Colorado. One of disadvantages for birds and other critters on the grasslands is the lack of trees and shrubs to perch in where they might get some protection from the weather. SeEtta