Red-tailed Hawk

On Sunday I decided to check out Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge since there had been some interesting reports from there the past week. Unfortunately, I did not see the Snow Bunting or the Kittiwake that had been reported, nor did I see the Red-shouldered Hawk or White-faced Ibis that were seen that same day.

But I did see Red-tailed Hawks. Lots of Red-tailed Hawks. There is a large hill in the middle of the refuge and the hawks were using the drafts coming up off it to hang in the air as they watched for prey below.

Having never been to this refuge, I decided to walk the few trails that are still open this time of year. There weren't a lot of birds, but I did see flurry of Pacific and Bewick's Wrens as I walked through the forested area and saw five deer along the way.

Red-tailed Hawk

Another image from my last trip to RNWR last Wednesday. There were raptors galore. I saw several Red-tailed Hawks, several Bald Eagles, a couple of Northern Harriers and American Kestrels. Not only were they plentiful, but they were much more cooportive about staying in place so I could take some good pictures.
The image above is one of those examples. This Red-tailed Hawk was perched in a tree about 10 feet off the ground. I pulled up along side it in my car and started taking pictures. It did not show any concern with my presence. Normally I would have lucky if I could gotten that close without it flying off. I'm not sure why things would be any different other than it was later in the afternoon than when I normally visit.

Red-tailed Hawk

I haven't mastered taking pictures of birds in flight yet. I have two problems. Either the focus is bad and/or the bird is terribly underexposed against the bright sky. Case in point, I ran across five or six Turkey Vultures a week or so ago both roosting in some tall pines and circling near by. I took a couple hundred pictures of what looked like fantastic images though the viewfinder, but when I downloaded them to my computer, I was disappointed to find that all of the pictures I took of the Vultures flying overhead were under exposed with very little detail. I had even adjusted the exposure on my camera to help compensate for this problem.
It's with this and other experiences in mind that I wasn't too hopeful that these shots of a Red-tailed Hawk I took at Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve would turn out well. I almost didn't bother to shoot them. But when I transferred them to my computer, I was pleasantly surprised. A longer lens would helped out with the grain as I had to crop quite a bit to fill the frame, but all-in-all, these didn't turn out too bad.