Gawking at the Hawk
Since my previous post about hawks, I just now got a chance to see one up close.
The hawk was perched up high on the corner of the building and I didn’t notice it until I flapped its wings against the metal siding. From being able to get a closer look, it seems to be a Red-tailed Hawk other than the Harris’s Hawk that I thought it was earlier. It had a bright white underbelly and pale yellow feet.
The only thing that gets me is that morning’s bird had a different call than the Harris’s Hawk that I witnessed the other day. Who knows, it might be two totally different birds that I have be checking out.
This is probably the most common hawk in North America. If you’ve got sharp eyes you’ll see several individuals on almost any long car ride, anywhere. Red-tailed Hawks soar above open fields, slowly turning circles on their broad, rounded wings. Other times you’ll see them atop telephone poles, eyes fixed on the ground to catch the movements of a vole or a rabbit, or simply waiting out cold weather before climbing a thermal updraft into the sky.
More information can be found here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-tailed_Hawk/id