Monday, December 5, 2011

Red-tailed Hawk in my Yard

1. RTHA-kab Red-tailed Hawk in Andover, MA 12-4-11

Though the calendar says December, it feels more like September here in Andover, MA as our warm weather continues. On Sunday morning I woke up slow and easy to a chilly morning. I lit the fire in the fireplace and peeked out the windows at my empty yard. Where are all the birds? This place was hopping yesterday! Suddenly I saw a huge bulk of feathers flying towards me from the woods. It landed in one tree at the back of the yard, then sailed on by and landed in my neighbor’s yard.

2. RTHA in tree-kab I moved from my bedroom window to the guest bathroom on the west side of the house. From there I had a perfect view of the perched bird, a Red-tailed Hawk! No wonder there were few birds at the feeder today! While Red-tailed hawks are quite common and distributed all across the United States, I never tire of seeing them. This one has been hanging around my yard for awhile and I suspect it is one of a pair I often see at the bog down the street to the east of me.

3. RTHA looking at me-kabThough the hawk looked around, it never did any hunting that I saw. Too bad. I have a ton of fat gray tree rats, a.k.a. gray squirrels, that I wouldn’t mind if it thinned out for me.

Though the morning started out rather cold at 30F, it warmed to 53F by the afternoon. I couldn’t stand staying inside, so I took Gus to see Baker’s Meadow, a place I recently discovered. It made for a nice afternoon. Besides, you never know when the snow will start!

8 comments:

  1. Note: all of these photos were shot through my bathroom window and so are not quite as crisp as I would like. Hope you enjoy them anyways!

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  2. A beautiful raptor to have in your yard Kathy. Does he hang around often? I hope he does not keep your 'regulars' from being able to feed.

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  3. super captures Kathie, looks like you had a chance at some nice looks at a pretty hawk.

    dan

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  4. Hi Kathie

    We get Merlins in the summer once in a while but nothing bigger. You got some nice shots of the hawk.

    Regards
    Guy

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  5. I love to watch the red-tailed hawks and usually see them soaring over the meadows by the north rim. Nice window shots.

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  6. Kathie, great close-up images of the beautiful Red-tailed Hawk! So very pretty against the stunning blue sky.

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  7. Hi Kathie, that is a cool yard visitor. Great shots of the hawk.

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  8. great hawk shots!! don't you just love to hear them 'talking' to each other as they fly around the yard!!


    we have the Red-tail too...and i took some pic's also....next post!

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Welcome to my nest! I hope you will enjoy spending time here with me and the birds. Thank you for your comments. I will try to get back to you as soon as I get back from counting more birds.