Ok got some new stuff here. Yesterday a friend at work told me where I could find a hawks nest and he even had pictures of a baby in the nest taken just last week. With that info alone, I took the afternoon off of work and decided to go scout the area. Luckily I found the very tree he mentioned and WOW, there was a baby hawk sitting up on a branch near the nest---although he had the dark wing feathers, he still had the downy white head. I observed for a few minutes and decided come back in the evening when the light was better---with my camera this time. When I returned yesterday evening, Only the mom (I think) was visible and sitting up on the branch. She was extremely tolerant of my presence and allowed me to set-up and shoot pictures for more than 30 minutes @ no more than 30 feet (10 Meters) away. When I returned home, I spent a great deal of time trying to identify the bird(s) and finally came to the conclusion it was a Swainson's Hawk.
This morning I returned just before sunrise, But no birds in the tree or nest. So I used the time to set-up. I had been on-sight for about 30 minutes and was walking around when I almost stepped on the Mother Bird. She had been hiding in the scrub grass not more than 10 feet in front of me. And again, she allowed me to take pictures for more than 30 Minutes. It wasn't long after that when the big male showed up. But he wasn't near as trusting as mom was.
Lesson Learned, don't forget to look down when searching for birds.
Here are some of the shots:
Momma Bird (I think) from yesterday.
Bird in the bush--on the ground from this AM
Another ground shot of Momma.
Here is one of Dad keeping an eye on things from a distance
This is a Swainson's Hawk and is the first time I have seen one of these---I plan to go back out to the nest many more times, so standby for lots of Hawk-Shots.
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Originally Posted by bob williams
