Hawk encounter #2....

It's been a week for interesting hawk encounters. We had been searching for hawks out around Blue Grass and were finally heading home.

This Red-tailed Hawk was sitting on a pole along a busy road. Mike turned the car around and pulled into a church parking lot so I could get a photo. I had taken a few photos and we were about to leave when he suddenly dove to the roadside where we were......nearly hitting a semi truck that was driving by at the time.
We knew he had nailed something.

Picking it up.

A very large mouse or something of that sort.

Gulping it down

His neck looks reather "bulging" there.

He swooped off to another pole top where he then regurgetated it and went to work on it.

Yuck....but I'm glad he got dinner! When he dove with such fierce concentration across the road....with his eye on the prize....I couldn't help but wonder how many get hit by big trucks. This was a narrow busy road and semis were constantly passing by as well as cars. It's a hard life being a hawk in a busy city area.

Hawk on the wire.....

Spotted this Red Shouldered Hawk (?) yesterday while heading over to Henderson.He was determined to ignore us.
I don't know if he had his eye one something else or just didn't care that we were there.
It's late and I will post more stuff from the last couple of days when I get it sorted out.

House Finch male....

Maybe as a New Year's resolution, I should start posting just one photo a day. Nah....I know myself better than that, and the first time I got excited about something I saw there would be 20 photos in my post :-) However, I will post just this one shot at the moment because it is all that I have that is worth posting. Hope to go out in a little while and play with the new lens more. At least this lets you know I am still "alive and clicking".....or is that kicking?

Squirrel Sunday.......the chase is on

I'm still finding our little "herd" of squirrels (what's the group name for squirrels?) very entertaining when they come out to chase each day."Let's go the other way for awhile....I'm getting dizzy!"
I wondered if this was a male chasing a female. The top one is fluffier and more orange. The bottom one was paler in color and a thinner tail.

"Caught you!"

"Can I whisper a secret to you?"

Up in the tree it gets hard to see where one squirrel starts and another ends. Same pair here.

"Ah.....please be my girlfriend?"

"Pretty please?"

"How's this for a great restaurant? Lots of acorns and all for free!"

Pounce

"Where did she go?"

"Oh, well....there's still food here."

"Hey....where is everyone? I want to play some more!!"

Can't see much of the squirrels, but I count three tails here!

I wanted to show how well that orange belly and tail show up among the many branches and leaves. Makes tracking them a little easier.

This is typical of how they just seem to "pour" out of the trees from all directions and race around so fast, I can't keep up with them! Unfortunately I am shorter than the bushes that grow next to the deck and I was afraid to try to go down in the yard, so there is a lot of irritating bits in the way.

Leftovers on a New Year's day.....

Well, most people start the New Year with something new and lots of resolutions. I've never been good at resolutions and the only photos I have are leftovers that I found on the older camera....some from before Christmas and our snow! I have a couple shots of the Red Bellied Woodpecker female for a change!
She seems a bit more jumpy and I had to be really quiet. Good thing we replaced the glass in the sliding glass doors, or this shot would be a blur.

The Downy woodpecker male.

I can't believe how much faster the shots from the old camera load into my blog. I may have to start using that one more often at home where the birds are close.

A House Finch male giving me a glare. Finches tend to just settle down and eat and ignore everything around them, unlike some of the birds that are in and out every few seconds or the ones that are so jumpy they fly if they catch a glimpse of you.

A Cardinal checking the ground around the pole....obviously before we had snow.

Blue Jay with peanut....after snow.

This isn't mine. A friend got this from her nephew and asked me take a photo. It is the biggest poinsettia I have ever seen! Obviously several years old and trained to be a tree. When my friend, who is about 5'2" stands by it she isn't a lot taller (of course it is on a low table...but still!)

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Anyway....a brand New Year is here and I guess I had better resolve to get outside and take some photos for my blog. That's a resolution I can probably manage to keep :-)