Out riding on the bike path yesterday when a hawk landed in a tree in front of me. Took a bunch of pictures of him and didn't see the dead squirrel in his talons. Till I loaded the shots into the computer. I'm still geeking out.

...One of my favorite birds. Nice pics.

Thanks for two great pictures!

Paul

Now thats a beautiful bird

Very nice shot!!!

Awesome pics!

Camera/Lens**********

Tree rat gets justice.

we have em in the yard a lot, except they kill the other birds...Great to look at however...
Bud

Great pics. Thanks.

Lumix FZ 150. Just came out on the market.

Very cool!

Nature's answer to the "squirrel crossing the road problem". If you could just get one to fly about 25 feet ahead on the road . . . Could become a symbiotic thing since cyclists seem to attact squirrels.

Great pics!!

Crystal clear, too. You must have been in zoom mode to get those images. You have a good eye and a steady hand.

Now go get some Herons for Mrs. Gyro.

Finally got a ride in yesterday too....back and forth to work, in the dark. Now the rain's back.

Can anybody ID the species of hawk? Doesn't look like anything we have out here on the left coast.

SP
Bend, OR
(Not a birder as such, but I like to know what I'm looking at.)

Great pics, thanks.

[QUOTE=bobbycorno;13408140]Can anybody ID the species of hawk? Doesn't look like anything we have out here on the left coast.

SP
Bend, OR
(Not a birder as such, but I like to know what I'm looking at.)[/QUOTE

"Red Tail" I think.

I got 65 miles in between Saturday and Sunday. I caught the hawk on the parkway trail Sunday afternoon.

that's a great idea. I was bombing down a mountain the other evening when a squirrel ran out in front of me and stopped. Not sure anything bad would have happened to me if I ran over him, but I really didn't want to find out. I really like hawks, surprised one on my bike a couple of years ago, and the noise it made was just amazing.

[QUOTE=Gyro;13408176]The Redtails I'm used to seeing look more like this:



But from the pics that Google turned up, there's a lot of (regional?) variation, and that'n matches some of the photos. Learn somethin' new every day!

SP
Bend, OR

Nice shots Gyro. I'm not an ornithologist..but have been a birder for over forty years...therefore I'm 99.999% sure you've got an adult Red-tailed Hawk there. Very common for that part of the country and fairly easy to ID due to spots on the stomach area, often referred to a "belly-band". Juvenile birds have spots as well but no where near as well defined as the adult in your pic.

bobbycorno, you are correct about different variations. There are several different color morphs and sub-species that range from very dark to very, very light. The one in the photo is how most eastern birds appear but in the West and Great Plains states you start to see more variation.

+1on the red tailed,it looks like one of the eastern ones
Bud

Young Red-tailed - probably male.

Fabulous pictures!

Love me some raptors, the Red Tail is my favorite, lots of 'em down here in the Austin, Texas area. We call 'em chicken hawks.
I was a truck driver in a previous life, and made 3 trips a week from Austin to Dallas. When they are diving for prey, they are so focused on the "business at hand", that they are often killed by trucks on the interstates.
Around this time of year I once saw 26 of 'em in about 3 hours, must of been mating season or something, saw lots of pairs flying together.
Really nice pictures.
Thanks,
Coyote

+1. Not often enough in my book.