Red-tailed Hawk

 So, every once in a while I would catch a glimpse of this absolutely wonderful hawk on campus right near our building. I kept thinking to myself, "Dangit! I wish I had my camera!" One day after work when I was walking to my truck I saw this huge shadow on the pavement of a bird. I looked up and there she was. She had something in her talons but I couldn't tell what it was until she turned around. It was a whole squirrel!!!! I felt really terrible for the squirrel because he was unfortunately still alive but wow! I have never seen anything like that so close.

Yesterday I saw her perched on the scoreboard on the track field across the street and again I didn't have my camera. Today I though I would throw in a point and shoot because if I brought my hot-rod camera she wouldn't show up. I went out on my lunch break and there she was swooping onto the scoreboard. I ran in and got the point and shoot and ran back out and managed to snap a few blurry pics before she flew off and started gliding towards the big stadium. I saw her up there perched on the top railing.

She's pretty dang awesome. I can't wait to get better pics of her. I didn't know what kind of hawk she was but I looked up Red-tailed hawk and the pictures look just like her. And of course I started reading about them and found that the females are 25% bigger than the males. Well, she's the first I have ever seen so I don't have anything to compare her to so, I am merely guessing.

More pics to come and hopefully they will show how awesome she really is. :-)

I also found a link to a live web cam of the Red-tailed hawk "Violet" and her mate "Bobby" who are nesting on their eggs at NYU. Click here