Raptors in the Flint Hills of Kansas: Hawk Country on New Year's Day

A magnificent Bald Eagle sat in the Eagle Tree this morning and i wanted to bring a steak offering in exchange for the beauty of sun lighting up the Grand head.
As i'd approached the eagle tree, i looked, as always for a raptor; the tree is one mile from my house and as i neared, i realized there was indeed a bird there-- but it was growing larger, LARGER in my sight-- an eagle!? Yes!
(click here for a previous Bald Eagle viewing)

I was on a tight schedule (sigh) and only grabbed 2 distance pics. However, on the way home i took the following photos of a red-tailed hawk between the eagle tree and the homestead.

The untouched photos (canon) are followed by a few altered posters and the sunset is from this past week.
Click on the pic to view large please.

 hawk habitat

More eagle and hawk photos throughout this blog,
for example, HERE

 Hawk Poster by MTodd feel free to download and print yourself a copy...

Hawks in Kansas Fly the Flint Hills

Along a 5-mile stretch of flint hills back roads, I saw 6 hawks. At least 2 were redtailed, and 2 were juveniles. I took some pics with my canon powershot sx30 is. What i really want to do is lay in the grass and be there when they arrive; get some really good pictures.

 There are a lot of raptors photos posted in this blog. Like juvenile red-tailed HERE and bald eagle HERE; or go to the search box on the right and type in hawks or vultures or raptors or eagles. click HERE to see the beautiful KSU Hawk.

 Click on pic to view large

click HERE to see the habitat around this road.

Red Tailed Hawk After the Rain

Driving down the road i saw a hawk on the wire shimmying and shaking to dry off the rain. I know, you ask, what is this "rain" you speak of?
Birds come out and bathe and sing after the rain, i love to watch the cardinals in particular (see video of cardinal singing and cleaning click HERE)

It looked like a Red Tailed Hawk. But is it young, with no red tail feathers? I will have to investigate further. I took a couple pics and a little video. I overexposed one pic so you can see the wing pattern better. Some are large files; click on pic to view enlarged. I will post the video when i get to a faster computer to upload to youtubules. (77katydid)  HERE IS an earlier post with mature red-tail.

KSU's soaring red tail hawk HERE
I found this site to be a good Red Tailed Hawk read/pictures: http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/red-tailed_hawk.htm