Sixty-Three: Red-Tailed Hawk with Prey
It has been snowing (and sticking) the last few days in Olympia. Usually that's a good time for backyard bird photography, as the refracted light from the snow means that it's bright enough in the shade-covered yard for good photographs. Unfortunately, however, I've been buried in work lately, so there was little on that front until this morning when, during the sublime weekend ritual of coffee in bed, Mrs. Orca looked out the window and spotted this redtail in the maple behind our house. I rolled out of bed and dashed out the back in the snow to snap a few photos, at first barefoot, then (when my feet got too cold) in the ridiculous Muck boots and underwear uniform.
Red-tailed hawks, along with bald eagles, kestrels, and the more occasional harrier are common raptor fly-overs (not to mention owls, which we often hear but never see). But our yard is small and confined enough that unlike cooper's and sharp-shinned hawks, they do not seem to land in it, and since I don't count flyovers I've never been able to add them to the yardbird list. This redtail must have been lured in by a rat, which I presume it caught among my neighbor's sprawling patch of ivy, where I know them to live. Both of our yards are pretty much fully canopied, so it must have caught it while hunting from a perch in the big maple, as seen above. Fortunately for me (and unfortunately for the rat) this means I can add it to the yardbird list. This is the sixty-third photographed yardbird species, not counting flyovers, and the third new species of 2022, following the wholly unexpected appearance of the calliope hummingbird and Nashville warblers:
9. bushtits
12. brown creepers
13. common crows
14. stellar's jays
16. flickers
19. starlings
20. mourning doves
24. house finches
25. gold finches
26. purple finches
28. pine-siskins
31. fox-sparrows
33. song-sparrows
34. house sparrows
44. black-throated gray warblers
45. bewick's wrens
46. pacific wrens
47. cedar waxwings
49. cooper's hawks
51. lazuli buntings
52. hutton's vireos
53. warbling vireos
56. western tanagers
57. red crossbills
63. red-tailed hawk
Red-tailed hawk, backyard Olympia.
Sixty-Three: Red-Tailed Hawk with Prey
It has been snowing (and sticking) the last few days in Olympia. Usually that's a good time for backyard bird photography, as the refracted light from the snow means that it's bright enough in the shade-covered yard for good photographs. Unfortunately, however, I've been buried in work lately, so there was little on that front until this morning when, during the sublime weekend ritual of coffee in bed, Mrs. Orca looked out the window and spotted this redtail in the maple behind our house. I rolled out of bed and dashed out the back in the snow to snap a few photos, at first barefoot, then (when my feet got too cold) in the ridiculous Muck boots and underwear uniform.
Red-tailed hawks, along with bald eagles, kestrels, and the more occasional harrier are common raptor fly-overs (not to mention owls, which we often hear but never see). But our yard is small and confined enough that unlike cooper's and sharp-shinned hawks, they do not seem to land in it, and since I don't count flyovers I've never been able to add them to the yardbird list. This redtail must have been lured in by a rat, which I presume it caught among my neighbor's sprawling patch of ivy, where I know them to live. Both of our yards are pretty much fully canopied, so it must have caught it while hunting from a perch in the big maple, as seen above. Fortunately for me (and unfortunately for the rat) this means I can add it to the yardbird list. This is the sixty-third photographed yardbird species, not counting flyovers, and the third new species of 2022, following the wholly unexpected appearance of the calliope hummingbird and Nashville warblers:
9. bushtits
12. brown creepers
13. common crows
14. stellar's jays
16. flickers
19. starlings
20. mourning doves
24. house finches
25. gold finches
26. purple finches
28. pine-siskins
31. fox-sparrows
33. song-sparrows
34. house sparrows
44. black-throated gray warblers
45. bewick's wrens
46. pacific wrens
47. cedar waxwings
49. cooper's hawks
51. lazuli buntings
52. hutton's vireos
53. warbling vireos
56. western tanagers
57. red crossbills
63. red-tailed hawk
Red-tailed hawk, backyard Olympia.