This is a bird post. I don’t usually post about birds as I am not a bird photographer and I don’t have the equipment to be much of a bird photographer, but I chanced to catch a red-tailed hawk flying low over the park in the late afternoon sun and I got what I think are some good photos.
Red-tailed hawks are common across most of the lower 48, but it is fun to catch one up close. I first saw it land on a tree and I got out my camera with the longest lens I have: Nikon Z50 and 50-250mm zoom. I took a photo of the hawk in the tree which didn’t turn out well, but it then took off and circled around above me and let me get some photos with its underside lit by the low sun. Most bird-in-flight photos have the underside of the bird in shadow and dark, but I had the full sun lighting it up in this case.
There are three or four types of hawks that are common in these parts, so I spent a little time making sure that I had this one identified correctly. The color of its neck feathers and underside as well as the shape of his tail seem to place him firmly in the Red-Tailed Hawk category. There is a chance that I am wrong and it is a Swainson’s Hawk, but I am pretty sure it is a Red-Tailed.
Before that I had been shooting some Cedar Waxwings. These birds spend the winter down here and I like seeing them as they are mostly gold, but have a little bandit mask across their eyes. I like the way they look in the late or early sunlight really making their yellow feathers stand out.
They also have just a small bit of red on their wings that really stands out. The trees around here are full of these birds right now and they really don’t mind people all that much. Before long they will head back up north for the summer and I won’t see them for a while.
Well that’s my bird post. Hopefully I can get out for some more landscape shooting this weekend. Thanks for reading.
Jason Frels 
Very nice. I like seeing the underside of the hawk lit up like that. We have a thick bush by our livingroom window, that quail roost in. Occasionally, a red-tailed hawk stops by and goes inside the bush to get its breakfast. My wife hates this bird, but I think it’s pretty cool to see it in action.
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Awesome shots for a non bird photographer.. 👍
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Wonderful shots! That second shot of the hawk is especially good. A beautiful blue sky too.
I remember those masked birds in another post before. See, your posts are memorable. 🙂 They are cute. Too bad that they don’t come to Pa. !
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I’ll bet they come to your area, perhaps you just haven’t seen them. I don’t think they come to people’s yards for feeders. I think they like woodland areas like parks. So maybe you have to go out and about to find them.
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You are right about them coming to Pennsylvania, I looked it up. 🙂
But unfortunately they go to Northern Pa, and we live in the Southern part.
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Just letting you know that you may have to go into yoir email to see my story for tonight. Looks like the WP Reader decided to not cooperate with ms tonight. It can be quirky!
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Brilliant. What great photographs they are.
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Nice work with the hawk in flight. When I try that I usually get the silhouette of an under-exposed bird against an over-exposed sky 🙂
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great photos. It seems like there is a sub-culture of bird photographers on WordPress…
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Lovely and sharp images, the hawk looks great with the low sunlight on it’s belly! Greetings from Tasmania 😀
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