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Russell: What wonderful shots of Jay! Aren't their eyes so remarkable! The close ups just give us back our family. Thank you so very much.

Socal, these are wonderful! They are so clear. What a fine hawk Thunder is! I am glad to know she still visits the nest and gotten so big!

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The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man. ~Author Unknown

Wow, another great set of photos! I like the backlit look. But, the last three....on my! Great pictures. Thanks!!!

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The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man. ~Author Unknown

OK, they just keep getting better. Catgirl, these are amazing pictures! And heart be still with the flight shot. Absolutely beautiful. I second that with Socals comment. Without you, the rest of us would be done. I am so grateful for you and the other's time and effort. Thank you!

Are these with your new camera?

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The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man. ~Author Unknown

Socal: I posted late last night but got that Problem screen and just now looking back, they did not take. Bummer. Anyway, I wanted to thank you for the Thunder Visiting the Nest captures! Wow! So clear and close. I don't see any white mark on the back of her head, though, and I think Workaholic said that "her" hawk (3 miles away) had a white mark on the back of its head. Not sure. But if/when our intrepid local citizen-wachers/photographers do some portraits of our "extra" hawk, maybe we can compare belly bands with the photos of Thunder, and photos which catgirl got last June in her (mere blocks from the station) back yard, of the juvenile redtail, the "suspected sibling" of Thunder. Also, maybe try to find out if belly bands are the same throughout life on a redtail, or change over the years, maybe ask Donna/Donegal, but if anyone knows, please tell us? Now that we have these closeups of Thunder and Jay, thanks to the screen captures and ground shots, I am simply captivated by their eyes! I am sure there is some physiological reason, but I maybe prefer a more fantastical reason. Their eyes look more "real" or deep, or cogent, or something, that the many birds I see at my feeders. Maybe it is the binocular way they see? or maybe just their eye color. Don't know. I also notice now that we are close up with Thunder, that she is really developing a fine lush set of pantaloons! :-)

Catbird... Thanks...I replied to this on "Post-Fledge" thread.....

Hawk88 cell phone photos:

Note posted 6/18/08 on Hawk Sighting Thread: "I don't know if this will help but last year we were driving down the highway and we spotted a hawk on a light post and then it started hopping around on cars in a parking lot every day we saw it on the light post as we were going to work for quite a long time.We followed it on several occasions on the ground and on telephone lines we don't know if this could have been K or J. We spotted it off the B.A expressway & Garnett."

(I wonder what the car owners thought of those strange scratches on their hoods?)

As I went outside this evening to pick some herbs, I heard a different call than the RedTail.  This bird flew out of the cottonwood tree over my head and landed on my neighbor's roof.  I got as close as I could but it took off before I could get a good picture.  But take a note of what it is carrying!!!!  Dinner for two or three?!!

Here it is about to take off.  Rats or possum?  And what type of hawk - if it is one?  I thought it looked a little like the red-shoulder that kcactionphoto displayed earlier.

This evening while looking for Kay and Thunder (Jay was in his usual perch on the KJRH tower), I could hear all kinds of commotion going on in a tree, but could not spot anything.  Instead this guy was sitting in a tree nearby watching all the blue jays mob someone else!  I am going to have to learn about more types of birds - not sure if this is a hawk or what (hopefully its not a pigeon!!)

Catgirl: It sort of has some white/gray areas like a possum. Still, whatever it is, it is BIG. Donegal said once that an adult female (being bigger than the male) CAN catch and kill a rabbit, but I don't know about an opposum? No clue what that lovely perching statuesque bird is. Jump in, anyone? Help?

I think its a kite, I don't know a lot about them. Try this http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Mississippi_Kite.html

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/ConservationAndScience/MigratoryBirds/Featured_Birds/default.cfm?bird=Mississippi%20Kite

Throughout the year, they occupy much of their time in flight during which they catch large flying insects, mostly dragonflies, on the wing. As soon as a kite locates suitable prey it dashes and catches it in midair with its talons, and often eats it in flight. They sometimes takes insects on the ground and in trees, and will readily take every opportunity to grab reptiles, amphibians and any other small living creatures as well.

As the fall sets in and the flying insects slowly disappear, Mississippi Kites gather in large flocks for their southbound migration, spending the winter in South America as far south as Argentina, and returning north during the warm days of mid-April. Each spring and fall several thousand migrating kites are seen funneling through a narrow pathway at the southernmost tip of Texas.

Mississippi Kites sometime wander quite far north and west of their breeding range which is restricted to the southern Great Plains and the southeastern United States, with isolated breeding colonies in Arizona and New Mexico. Fortunately, unlike most raptors all over the world, both the population and range of Mississippi Kite are increasing.

Catgirl, this looks like a Cooper's Hawk to me. The females can be pretty good sized but no where near the size of a red tail, and smaller than most red shouldereds. It has a very long tail, rounded tip, wide banding. In this light it is hard to tell color, but the younger ones are brown and cream speckled like most yong hawks, adults are grey on top/wings/tail with rusty streaking on chest and orange-red eyes.  Accipter-long tail, long slender toes, usually eats birds but will take rodents.  Could it have a pigeon?  It is a much smaller hawk than a red tail, the prey would look larger in proportion.

 

As I went outside this evening to pick some herbs, I heard a different call than the RedTail.  This bird flew out of the cottonwood tree over my head and landed on my neighbor's roof.  I got as close as I could but it took off before I could get a good picture.  But take a note of what it is carrying!!!!  Dinner for two or three?!!