Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Hawks who don't shave their legs

I love it when I run into birders on my excursions. Today, after taking Lorelei to the doctor (she has a ruptured eardrum with gross drainage, completely out of nowhere) we stopped at Armleder to give it one more shot, to get a decent picture of the rough-legged hawk. And we scored. I saw a few birder-types standing and looking up into the trees, and I picked up Lorelei and ran. The hawk gave us a spectacular 20 minute display, wind-hovering, kiting, sometimes hanging mid-air right above our heads.

Rough legged hawk3

rough legged hawk 2

Rough legged hawk 4
It perched a few times....

Rough legged hawk 1
...and then continued its hunting. This might be the first time I left a bird while it was doing something cool, just because I had taken all the pictures I could, and I had finally gotten so many great looks at it.

Rough legged hawk take off

7 comments:

Lynne at Hasty Brook said...

I'm glad you got a good look at that hairy-legged hawk, after your frustrations yesterday. Very cool pix!

Kathi said...

I am so FREAKIN' jealous! Today would have been a great day to go birding. Too bad I was stuck at work. I wish I could have been there with you to see that Rough-legged. Do you think it will stick around till Thursday? I am going to bird if it kills me.

~Kathi

mon@rch said...

I can't say that Rough-legged hawks ever give me that good of a look! ROFL Love your title of this post!

Dave Dorsey said...

Nice pix's Susan. Hey, we finally got snow. :)

entoto said...

Yippy! What a great last picture. Very cool. Sorry to hear about Lorelei's ear. We are still stuck in the doctor rut. Argghhhh....

dguzman said...

Sweet!!! Great pics.

Poor Lorelei--hope she's okay. Ear pain is second in intensity only to tooth pain, IMO--ouch!

Mary said...

I'm envious of your photos. I keep losing sight of hawks in flight to get a decent picture.

Bravo!