Even better is when I can snag a photo, like this hasty one through the window when a hawk lighted very briefly on the fence outside the kitchen eating nook/bay, at the end of April.
Yesterday, while I was working through some email by the fireside, I heard a slight commotion coming from somewhere but chalked it up to falling ice cubes in the ice maker. The longer I sat, though, the more noisy the bird chatter outside became but I just assumed there were crows or ravens in the area again. (The noise they make is murder!)
Shortly thereafter, I threw open the back door at the parking area with cardboard in hand and headed for the recycling cart. But my emergence from the house caught my wonderful neighborhood hawk red-handed, sitting right outside the door and munching down on a recently-caught mourning dove (fine with me, since I hate mourning doves). Here's a shot of his first meal spot, with feathers and some fresh blood:
Apparently, he was not dining alone, because he was also being badgered mercilessly by a couple of mockingbirds; he was also being stalked by the crows. He made a run for it and found an eating perch on a telephone pole just across the street from the house. I made a run for my camera and started snapping away, first with my standard lens, and then with my telephoto.
I went crazy taking shots. I'm putting here a few of the better ones; the rest are posted to an online album, should this sampling be insufficient to whet your hawk appetite. He was in place long enough for me to take pictures first from the downstairs porch, then with the tripod from the upstairs porch, and finally with the tripod out on the roof of the porch. I was trying to get as many classic shots as I could.
And here's a particular close-up for you; click on it for the large version:
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