Red-tailed Hawk in my yard!!

I was standing on the back porch taking pics of a Turkey Vulture flying over my next door neighbors yard, when I looked over my shoulder to the back of my yard and there he was!!

He had gotten an adult rabbit.

Needless to sat this was another time when I had to tell myself to take it easy.

He was there a long time; in fact my battery was going dead. :-)

After he left and it became darkish a Turkey Vulture came in to take away the rest.

Seeing that large bird made our parrot scream very loudly,lol.

AWESOME

Last pic. I zoomed back a litle to shown the scene with a squirrell while he was there.

Thanks evie! They are so gorgeous;I was quite happy.

I'm amazed the squirrel didn't hide somewhere! Great pictures.

Pell, An absolutely fabulous series! You sure were lucky to have the Red-tailed Hawk stop by for dinner, when you already had the camera in hand. The Gray Squirrel probably doesn't have a very long life span ahead. Red-tail already has squirrel penciled in, on his menu.

Well I'm back and I'm jealous already!! Wonderful shots Pelle...he is gorgeous...I would faint if I got a shot like those!!

Yes, nice pics Pelle...and glad to see you back Rose. I expect we will see lots of pics from you.

Hey Rose, Great to see you!

My gosh ,you are on a roll with your hawks there girl. I may have to come to your house!! That is just so completely, totally awesome pelle!!!!

Wow, I would never get the pic, I would be too nervous!!! GM

Hi GM, I was nervous at first but he was approximately 75 feet away. At first I was afraid if I moved too much it would scare him but he didn't pay me any mind no matter how much I moved about. I'm sure he would have bolted had I walked towards him.

These were shot in Manual mode-Ap.F8 SS-1/1000

I just saw this thread.

Spectacular photos!

I meant it was exciting and that made me nervous because I didn't want him to fly away before getting enough pics.

LOL is 125 enough pics? A good bit of overkill on my part. :-)

Thanks guys!

I think 125 sounds about right....

Great photos, Pelle. Your camera setting is right on for a situation like that.

I had the occasion to talk with a falconer over the weekend and I asked him a few questions about training his Peregrine Falcon, Mason, who is now two years old. Mason is being rehabilitated by the falconer who plans to release him during the first quarter 2009. He was fledged from the Legg Mason building in Baltimore but was later found injured. I was concerned how he handled the first time that he released him. If it were I, I would have feared that the falcon would not come back. But, he explained that training is easy and that the falcon can be trained in 4-5 weeks.

He also brought up the fact that Red-tailed Hawks are fairly easy to train also. So, pelle, maybe if you hold up some chicken, he just might fly closer to you.

Here is a photo of the falconer, and Mason .........

Okay I'll try that tomorrow Linth. ;-)

Mason is beautiful!