Hawks, A Story

[julian]

I'm really bad at hawk ID, but I assume these are red-tailed hawks. And if they are, apparently most of their flirting involves high-up courtship flights. This is, obviously, not high in the air. So maybe these guys are new at it, aren't actually red-tailed hawks, or are having a brief afternoon interaction. Who knows! Life is full of questions. I encountered them basically when I was getting out of the car a couple days ago, which was more than mildly startling.

In any case. Here's some hawk action, in several acts. Please pardon my ridiculous captioning.

"Hello! I am A Hawk!"





"Hey baby! How you doin'?"
"Oh. Hello."



In which there is action out of season.



"OK, A Hawk, that was fine, but entirely enough."
Meanwhile, there is ruffling.



"Aw, c'mon, you suuure?"



"I really did mean it. Yes. Thanks."
The ruffling continues. Puffy bird is amazingly puffy.



"Well ... OK ... Then I don't like you *either*." *stares into distance meaningfully*



"In fact... I will now storm away. I bid you good day, madam!"
"Um. Bye?"

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

Oh wow, amazing that you could capture that interaction!

[brownbetty]

The way *I* identify a red-tail is that it sounds exactly like every hawk in a movie, but uh. I don't suppose they were doing that sort of vocalizing?

[julian]

Heh. Either they were quiet, or I was too distracted by not tripping over roots and my own feet to notice, so, no.

.02 cents

[ranunculus]

I'm not terribly good at identifying hawks either - but I think that is a red shouldered hawk, not a red tailed hawk. What got me looking at bird books was the barred tail on this hawk. Clear black bars across underneath the tail and lots more over the back. Now it is true that Red tailed hawks have red on the top of their tails not really underneath, but... The chest on your hawks is also quite striped and shoulders and chest have a rusty appearance.

Very nice series of photos!!

Re: .02 cents

[julian]

Oh, that would be cool. The wing striping also doesn't quite work for how I visualize red-tailed hawks, so I think I'll adopt this as my truth.

(And, thanks.)

[cmcmck]

Fabulous!

We have had a couple of buzzards doing the mating ritual stunting over our home this last couple of days.

[julian]

Oh, neat. (And that makes sense; you folks have the open space for there to be thermals abounding.)

[nanila]

The dialogue is priceless. :D

[sparowe]

The captions are, in fact, delightful. :)

[shirebound]

Love your captions! I'm sure that's *exactly* what was going on. :)

[earthspirits]

Beautiful bird and photo!