Posted: 3/12/2008 3:49:32 PM EDT
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Are some badazz suckers. Was at a stop light today and saw one swoop down a a pigeon with poor situational awareness. Didn't fight with him or anything. Just crushed the sucker with his massive talons until he stopped flapping. not quite one of these, though |
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interesting...see my photo thread www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=685516 red tailed hawk and some other kind of bird |
Your photos are better than mine. I walked out my front door and surprised one late last summer that was gutting a large, freshly killed possum about 20 yards from my front door. I wish I had known he was out there... it would have made for a fantastic photo.   
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| Funny you posted that, I saw one hit a mouse??? in the center of the highway coming back from Houston last week. It hit the ground so hard and fast i couldn't believe it lived much less, spread his wings for balance then fly off. Even if the mouse saw the hawk it wouldn't have gotten; "Ooohh fu.." out before it was dead. |
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We've got one that hangs out in the bushes which overlook a bird feeder, between our driveway and the neighbor's yard. I saw it from about 3 feet away one time while I was out shoveling the snow. Last week, I got home from work and noticed a bright red cardinal feather in the snow. Then I noticed several more, along with a bunch of fluffy red and black down and a patch of blood. Upon closer examination, I found a bunch of sweep marks in the snow around the cardinal feathers, where the hawk's wings must have brushed the snow, along with some very large bird footprints. |
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This will interest you guys www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=672916 |
That is a Harris hawk not a redtail. |
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I love watching birds of prey do their thing. A couple years ago I was at work and doing my rounds at the hotel in down town Omaha. I got to the front of the building and just about to the front door when a pigeon dropped to the ground at my feet and started flopping toward the street and the rush hour traffic coming to work. I was startled and took a step or few back and just then a brownish streak flashed past me from behind and snagged the breakfast bird. It was a surreal few moments as this Peregrine falcon pulled several high G maneuvers dodging cars that would make a fighter pilot bow down to a better flier. A tight left and then right with wing tips pointing vertical the falcon dodged several lanes of traffic with its breakfast securely mounted to the retracting hard points as this bird was flying wind shield level in and out of morning traffic trying to gain altitude. The whole incident took a few seconds and then the falcon gained enough altitude to clear car roof tops that he could stop with the snap maneuvers and kick in his afterburners and climb out and clear the 6 or 7 story building across the street. The only thing I had to clean up was 4 or 5 pin feathers from the hawk's breakfast detour. There were some guests standing by the building and all I heard them said was "wow". link to the Omaha falcon's |
 A few years back their was an albino red tail around here. It was as white as fresh snow. Either it died, or someone killed it. I saw one on a fence post & stopped to look. It looked back as if thinking: If I can get that dude outta the truck I'll eat for a year. Was fishing a pond one day & saw an Osprey hit the water. It circled & got lower & lower then BAM! Hit the water so hard/fast you'd think it would kill itself. |
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I hit a red tail hawk with my car last year. Posted about it here. Stupid bird was chasing a mouse from the edge of the interstate into traffic and hopped right out in front of me. I had no time to stop, and no where to swerve. 70mph impact. POOF. feathers everywhere. |
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I've actually seen RTH at least 3 times flying with snakes. I seen one of them dive into the medium of the interstate and take off with a large black snake. Highway projects I was on in the eastern panhandle of WV had Eagles in the area. That was cool. I knew of one nest and also seen Ospreys all the time. The Eagles were the best though. An absolutely awesome bird. I seen a large owl this past monday along the road and stopped. It had apparently been hit by a car. another lady stopped and I got the Raptor Rehab Centers number and they came and got it. 
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I think the second bird is an egret. |