True that!
The big ones regularly pick off ground squirrels here in the west and sometimes they get wounded in the process.

Here is a better pic of a kestrel from our outing on Sunday
still dark and dreary lighting


Merry Christmas!

Dirt ~ Excellent picture!

Taken today - kinda lost the top of its wing... But neat nonetheless.



Here's another:

Beautiful shots!

ctcarol said:Beautiful shots!

Outstanding I'd say
and he caught those with manual focus (on a new-for-him lens that he got a great deal on cuz the auto focus is busted ) and with the wrong glasses on his face
Pretty dang impressive!

and I'm feeling all sad and tragic--took like 500+ shots on our outing today with 'mysteriously' wrong settings really, really dumb

so here's a couple more from the other day
beautiful redtail

when we still had a bit of light in the sky...

and a couple of different roughies


gorgeous birds, I'm glad they like to winter here

Nice job Dirt,
Beautiful photos. Love the predators along with all the other birds. You don't have exclusives on "wrong settings" on your camera. I'm from the old school with film cameras and I was always so careful to not waste the film but now the Scan Disk doesn't care so I'm not as reluctant to take a bunch hoping to get at least one good one.

Thanks LCL!
Yup, and not a first time mess-up for me either I'm ashamed to say.
Birds are hard to get--we couldn't afford to try if we were limited with film. And I'd probably be bawling if I paid for prints of all those badly exposed shots

Gosh! I remember wasting a lot of film. I'm happy we have a better system now.

I've only managed to get out into the Parkway a few days this month, and I'm still sorting through those images (it has been a hectic December). However, since you folks seem to be on a birds of prey kick, the beginning of yesterday's Parkway Patrol seems relevant.
I was only about halfway down the hill into the Parkway, when I spotted a white and brown something (actually, a Red-Tailed Hawk) up in a tree:

As I moved to get better lighting, the hawk took off. I missed the lift-off because, while I can usually walk and chew gum at the same time, I haven't mastered looking through the camera viewfinder while walking on non-level ground. It turned out that I hadn't spooked the bird; it was joining a friend well up at altitude. The two of them cut lazy circles for a bit, often ducking behind the trees. None-the-less, I was able to get a few aerials:


Even with the long zoom lens at 700 mm, I had to crop the images significantly. These guys rarely pose for closeups.

Nice photos Robert!
Spent the day on Plum Island (Newbury, MA), Saw Harrier and Red Tailed Hawks but no quality photos. Snowy Owls have been reported but no sightings. Did see some Snow Buntings and got some poor quality photos. Last winter on one day we saw five Snowy Owls but at a distance, still fun to see but poor photos..

[quote "but at a distance, still fun to see but poor photos.. [/quote]

I know the feeling! :

More Yellow-bellied sapsucker pictures. This lady comes almost every day for suet.






On that last one she's saying "Hey in there, the suet feeder is empty."

marsrover said:

"but at a distance, still fun to see but poor photos..

I know the feeling! :

me too

And our ingenious dog figured out some way to abscond with the suet feeder climbed a pole and scaled a wire??? Either that or flying monkeys ran off with it, but it is nowhere to be found, and our backyard birds are crying too.

okay, so I don't know what this is--
a commercial for check and double check your settings and shoot RAW anyway, because you never know what you might extract from the mire in terms of salvage pics, or something like that
before--seriously, click on it

and after


Someday, maybe I'll buy an editing program and learn how to do it, but for now here's a few salvage pics from a crappy low light day anyway, in which everything turned out blacker than it everwas

redtails
the slight almost blueish sky was before the clouds really socked us in




gorgeous roughie--'camoed' in the Russian olive

then flew to a post

where (s)he posed uneventfully for a long time, I flipped a coin and picked this one

then


Geese


Swans


and the illusive northern harriers

way off in the various distances...

I got a lot of bad pics, worse than these
and right when I had my chance for all of about 5 long seconds...
epic fail, the camera and lens were no longer properly locked together and weren't communicating with each other, so this was the only poor exposure that occurred

so close and yet so far

I'll get more chances, and hopefully much better pics
but I'll never get that Christmas day do-over, so I salvaged a few, just for the record

@dirtdorphins I have to bring in the suet feeder at night or it disappears too. Usually via raccoon or possum carrying it off somewhere. They are very persistent. I have a suet feeder screwed to a post, but stopped using it after a raccoon almost pulled the "door" off of it. The one I'm using now hangs on a rope out over the deck. DH added a tail prop to it. Its in the 2nd pic.

With a quote from an old movie, "They're back"! The Eastern Bluebirds have graced my neighborhood, specifically my own backyard with their presence. So nice to see and here it is the 29th of December 2018. There was a small flock mostly perched on my garden fence but they decided to check out the nesting boxes. The real beef suet and the heated birdbath are the attractions. Photos are not super quality but at least I show as evidence of them being here. NOTE: I too must check out the nesting box because after cleaning it I neglected to completely close the side door.

Wonderful photos everyone. Lots of hawks hanging around here since my neighbor got some chickens, mostly red shouldered hawks, not as pretty as the ones you all have photographed.

My son took me on a photo drive a week ago, he is really getting into photography and so nice to have someone to go out with to take pictures. Here are some shots I got, you can get out and pull off but mostly water all around so can't get too close, and I don't have a really good lens for distance.
First one may be a Tri-colored Heron, second Great Blue Heron


Had to crop this one, I think it is a Red-shouldered hawk


Anhinga


Great Egret


Black-crowned Night-Heron (I think)


Tree full of birds at sunset.

Nice photos!

Sherri ~ Very nice!