I'm pretty sure this is a red tailed hawk, if not let me know.
To keep things in perspective, the first picture is sitting on my patio bench looking toward the park. I circled the two standard telephone poles where the Red Tailed Hawk hangs out. The pole on the left is aprox 250 yds away where I first saw him, the one on the right is aprox 300 yds away. I just happened to have my Spotting scope setup and was able to capture a few pictures and a video of the Hawk. I have a family of 3 Red Tailed Hawks living in the greenbelt. I’m shooting between 20x and 60x through the scope and full telephoto through the S7c Coolpix pocket camera for all photos and video. It’s very overcast and cloudy this Sunday morning so forgive the image quality.
Hope you like them.
Click the YouTube Link and the bottom of this post to see a short video of the Red Tailed Hawk as I saw it through my Spotting Scope.
And for all the HOSP that try to horn in on my Martins, this one's for you...
Martin Colony History: Erected 1st house in 1997. Birds were checking it out before Mike got down from the ladder. Six cavities had a little colony 1st year. Grown to 88 cavities all gourds with near 100% occupancy. Most important factor for success is rain = bugs.
We often see larger hawks circling overhead. Early in the season the PM colony is wary of them - but, later on they don't give them more than a second glance.
One year I watched a small hawk capture a PM. This smaller hawk had to take the PM to the ground for some reason. When he did a larger hawk dropped in and stole the prey from the smaller hawk. Life is not "easy" for any of them. I've heard it said that they will try 10 times for each successful attack. I believe this is a pretty accurate account. Most of the time the hawk comes up empty-handed.
Your last picture tells you he is a red tail! A bird that tells his name which isn't often the case. I have never had our redtails bother the martins, but a hunger problem could change that . I have seen the martins mob them when they weren't even close, so that may be a deterrent also. Great pictures!
Sue
