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Monday, July 7, 2008

Ohhhhh a new Raptor moves into the 'hood!

My yard is a varitable playground for all things wild. We've had raccoons, rabbits, snakes, birds, bugs, squirrels, mice, Matani, and I'm pretty sure a coyote even!
We have a Red Tailed Hawk who has frequented our yard on NUMEROUS occasions. He would sit on our fence and lay in wait for some hungry little bird to hit up the neighbors birdfeeder.
Stealthy killer my ass! They are AMBUSH predators! But hey, I guess it's a bird-eat-bird world out there and ya gotta do what ya gotta do right?
Anyway, we haven't seen our Red Tailed Hawk in probably six months or more. Today I was outside with the kids and heard a squawking unlike anything I'd ever heard before! I ran outside and saw THIS little momma on the fence and ran back to get my ZOOM lens! Gregg and I have seen the chicks (three of them) in a neighbor's driveway and we could NOT figure out what kind of bird it was.. all we knew was that they were baby raptors of some sort, we are kind of thinking she may be some breed of Falcon? Well, the babies are flying now (and screaming very loudly) for their momma! The babes were up on the neighbor's roof and mom was on the fence.



I couldn't for the life of me figure out why her babies were screaming, and why SHE wasn't moving... until.......

She pulled this tasty treasure off the fence picket. YUM!
Have I mentioned that these beautiful birds of prey (sabotage killers) like to catch, pluck and eat these things in my garden? It's pretty gross! But, she IS pretty! Anyone know what she is?
I think I'll call her SPIKE.
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An after-thought. I just realized when I blew these photos up and wondered WHY they were so grainy, that I had left my ISO at 800 after the firework show.
blah!
I hope she comes back!

9 comments:

Celeste said...

YOu could totally use the texture of the fence for the texture challenge -- GREAT shots!

paulien710 said...

yikes...... these pics are so beautiful Krissy, as is the bird....

Nancy said...

love the color in these photos, and i can't believe you got that last shot!

Debbie Sherman said...

Cool Pictures Krissy!!!

Karin said...

Beautiful shots- and bird!!!!!! Love them all!!!!

Stacey said...

ohhhhhh man...you get the best pictures!!!! I can't believe you got that last shot!!!

Helen said...

Dont you hate that when you forget to check the settings. Did you have to get Spike with the mouse? Really! (heheh...great photography!)

Wendy said...

She is an American Kestrel, what the old timers called a sparrow hawk...I am extremely JEALOUS too!! Who cares about the texture of the fence look at the texture of the bird!! UGH!! I tried this spring to get a photo of a male hanging around here but he was just too far away!! You make me SICK!! LOL...but I love you!! Next time check those settings, lol...I just read about that...when you pick your camera up take a quick look at your settings before doing anything else, LOL...and how many times have I done that...At least you got some GREAT photos!!

Angela said...

Wow! Love your shots here, fantastic:) TFS Angie